On bring your dog to the ballpark night at Citi Field, the Mets “Let the Dogs Out! Hoot, Hoot, Hoot!!”
Noah Syndergaard was near flawless in 7 innings of Allstar caliber pitching tonight. With a 5-hit, 2-run (1 earned), 9-strikeout, no walks and 103 pitch performance. The “Beast of the East” was just what the doctor ordered for the Mets, as he dominated the Marlins in the late night ESPN Game of the Week. It will be a fun summer watching him make a run for the Cy Young award this year.
He is consistently averaging 98 mph on his fastball with “Late Life.” That is the scouts term for a ball that moves off of center just as it gets to the plate. Very hard to make good contact when the ball moves laterally like his does at close to 100 mph.
His sliders were off the charts and near perfect. Sharp, late breaking and never over the middle or on the outside part of the plate to lefties, they were thrown for strikes and almost impossible to hit with any kind of power. He had two strikeouts on three and two counts with his sliders, that showed just how much confidence he has in that pitch. Mixing in a bunch of blistering 98 to 101 mph fastballs, his 92 to 94 mph sliders became down right nasty. Marlins Greek God Giancarlo Stanton (0 for 11 vs Syndergaard), saw nothing but these nasty sliders from the God Thor and looked like a mere mortal tonight.
Again the Mets got more than they could ever wish for out of Rene Rivera. He was on the same wave length all night with Syndergaard in pitch selection and location. But is overall defense behind the plate, was a thing of beauty. In the third inning, with one out and two runs just knocked in on a double by Dee Gordon to bring the fish to within one run, Rivera threw out first Gordon trying to steal third and then Marlins catcher J.T. Realmuto at second to end both the rally and the inning.
In the bottom of the fifth, Jay Bruce homered to center with a monster 428-foot blast, adding an insurance run and a piece of film for the Mets, for when they put him on the market in May. Then Michael Conforto, showed why he needs to play everyday with a first pitch 428 foot blast of his own in the bottom of the sixth, that almost paid the toll at Shea Bridge.
The crowd of 27,420 on a surprisingly comfortable April in New York night, went home with a bright orange rally towel and a much needed win, as the Gods of the Nordic Realm came down to Citi Field tonight and unleashed the He-man Thor, on the Fish from the Swamp city of Miami. Preventing them from sweeping the Metropolitans, from the land of Queens. We don’t know what the next 156 games will bring, but tonight, all was right in the Universe.