Rosario, Syndergaard, Mets Breaking Out

Before this series against the Diamondbacks, much of the discussion surrounding this Mets team was about what was wrong with this team.  There were many, many answers, but two of the more surprising ones were Amed Rosario and Noah Syndergaard.

With Rosario, he was struggling at the plate.  He was swinging at too much, and he was not hitting for any power whatsoever.  This also prevented him from using his game breaking speed, and when he tried, he was inevitably caught stealing.

With respect to Syndergaard, he hasn’t been bad, but he hasn’t been Thor.  Considering how this team and pitching staff has been assembled, for this team to have a shot at competing, they needed Thor to be Thor.  Yesterday, Syndergaard made a huge step getting back to that point.

At first, it didn’t seem that way.  Syndergaard got himself into a bit of trouble in the first, but he managed his way out of it.  He would not be as lucky in the second allowing back-to-back hits to Jarrod Dyson and Nick Ahmed, i.e. the soft spot of the Diamondbacks lineup, before yielding an RBI groundout to Jeff Mathis to give the Diamondbacks an early 1-0 lead.

Through those first two innings, he had thrown 44 pitches, and it looked like it was going to be another one of those short five inning starts Syndergaard has made this year.

Then, something clicked . . . finally, and it began with a 1-2-3 third, and it also helped that Syndergaard got some help in the fifth.

After Mathis led off the inning reaching on a Wilmer Flores error, Buchholz sacrificed him to second.  David Peralta hit what initially looked like an RBI single, but Jay Bruce made a perfect throw to nail Mathis at the plate.

This was really the last time all game the Diamondbacks threatened.  Part of the reason for that is in the sixth Syndergaard actually picked Paul Goldschmidt off of first:

https://twitter.com/MLBReplays/status/998278928501358592

Syndergaard’s final line was a very Thor like 7.0 innings, six hits, one run, one earned, on walk, and seven strikeouts.

The only problem is with the Mets offense being stymied by a Clay Buchholz, who had not pitched in over a year, and the strong Diamondbacks bullpen, Syndergaard was not in line for the win.

Fortunately, he was not in line for a loss because in the sixth inning, Rosario hit his first home run of the year off of Buchholz to tie the score at 1-1:

In the seventh inning, it was apparent Syndergaard was done for the day, and with two quick outs, it seemed as if he was destined for a no decision.  However, Tomas Nido, who took the place of the recently designated for assignment Jose Lobaton, singled to allow Mickey Callaway to use Asdrubal Cabrera to pinch hit.  Like he has done all season, he delivered hitting a go-ahead two run homer off Jorge De La Rosa.

Then, Rosario is what might have been his best game in a Mets uniform, followed with his second homer of the game to give the Mets a 4-1 lead:

For Rosario, this would be his first two run homer game of his career.  It was also a big step forward after his making incremental steps forward over the past few weeks.  If he really takes off now, the sky is the limit for this Mets team.

After Jerry Blevins started the eighth by striking out David Peralta, Robert Gsellman took it home by pitching the final 1.2 innings for his first career save.

With that, the Mets have their first three game home sweep of the season, and they have their first series win at home since the April 13-15 series against the Brewers.  They are now back on track and once again ahead of the Nationals.  Things are once again looking much better.

Game Notes: Luis Guillorme went 0-4 snapping a 13 game hitting streak he had combined between the majors and Triple-A.

 

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