In a do-or-die Game Five, Terry Collins went to Noah Syndergaard in the seventh to go in there and shut down the Dodgers and preserve the Mets 3-2 lead. 

Without the need to keep his stamina for eight move innings, Syndergaard let it fly. He averaged 100 MPH with his fastball and his sinker.  Both pitches were 2-3 MPH faster than what he threw in the regular season.  He would only throw 17 pitches with one slider and three curveballs. Syndergaard came in with heat and struck out two in a scoreless inning. 

Watching that inning allowed you to continue the dream of winning the World Series.  You wondered what it would be like to see Syndergaard in the bullpen fulltime. You wanted to see how much better he could be. 

If you polled each and every Mets fan, they would tell you that Syndergaard would win at least Cy Young. They would tell you he would win at least one World Series with the Mets. They would tell you he had the drive to get better and better. For once, it wouldn’t be the fans’ fervor, it was a widely held belief in baseball circles. 

But this?  I don’t think anyone could’ve expected to see what we’ve seen out of Syndergaard so far this year. 

Last year, Syndergaard threw 17 pitches over 100 MPH.  He averaged 98 MPH on his fastball and sinker. He averaged 89 MPH on his change, 88 MPH on his slider, and 81 MPH on his curve. This year Syndergaard is just in another stratosphere. 

He’s already thrown 12 pitches over 100 MPH including hitting 102 on the radar gun. He’s actually throwing all of his pitches harder. His fastball and sinker are up to 99 MPH. His change up is 90 MPH, which is about the same speed as Bartolo Colon‘s fastball. His improved and more often thrown slider averages 93 MPH, and his curveball is at 83 MPH. His improved pitching has definitely left an impression:

How hard does Syndergaard throw? Plawecki blocked a pitch w/ his chest. Theres now an imprint where his necklace was pic.twitter.com/Sd52ije5PZ

— Steve Gelbs (@SteveGelbs) April 19, 2016

Think about it this way. Syndergaard got one inning to throw it as hard as he possibly could for one inning when the Mets season was on the line. So far this year, Syndergaard has been throwing harder than that, and he has been doing that for approximately seven innings this year. How do you describe all of this? 

David Wright calls him “a maxed out video game player.”  Fans have given him the Thor moniker. 

At this point, there are no words. There are no apt comparisons. Syndergaard truly is doing something we have never seen before. The scary part is he is continuing to improve. There’s no telling where Syndergaard goes from here. All we can do is sit back and enjoy the ride.