Diamondbacks Stuffed by Syndergaard, Drop Opener

Jul 10, 2015; New York City, NY, USA; New York Mets starting pitcher Noah Syndergaard (34) pitches during the first inning against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Citi Field. Mandatory Credit: Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sports

The Arizona Diamondbacks came into Citi Field as one of the hottest-hitting teams in baseball. Noah Syndergaard proceeded to treat them like high schoolers.

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The New York Mets defeated the D’backs by a score of 4-2 as Syndergaard fanned 13 over eight innings. After the first inning in which the Snakes scored their only of him on a sacrifice fly by Paul Goldschmidt, the Mets’ rookie put on a clinic, allowing only three hits in his final seven innings of work, striking out 9 of the final 14 hitters he faced. On his final pitch of the night, he got Goldschmidt to pop out behind home plate with A.J. Pollock on first base. Syndergaard evened his record to 4-4 while dropping his ERA to 3.11. Jeurys Familia gave up a run in a chaotic ninth inning but held on for his 25th save.

Lucas Duda provided all of the offense New York would need with a long three-run home run to center field off losing pitcher Chase Anderson in the bottom of the first inning. It was Duda’s 11th on the year and his first homer since June 18th. The very next batter, Michael Cuddyer, put a ball over the left center field fence for his seventh home run of the season. Anderson lasted only 4 1/3 innings, giving up 8 hits and two walks in addition to the four runs. He is now 4-3 with an ERA of 3.91.

Arizona made it a game in the ninth. Yasmany Tomas led off and foolishly tried stretching a double into a triple. He was thrown out but replay showed he was actually safe and the call was overturned. With one out, Welington Castillo singled home Tomas to cut the deficit in half. Chris Owings then hit weakly into a force for the second out. Nick Ahmed then made yet another costly base running mistake to end the game. He broke his bat on a soft pop up that was dropped by Familia. However, Ahmed did not run out of the box; instead he looked at his broken bat. Had he been running at the outset, he would have been safe. Instead, Familia recovered in time to throw him out and end the game.

There were two positives for the D’backs tonight. Pollock laced his 18th double and stole his 19th base. Four members of the Arizona bullpen allowed only two hits over the final 3 2/3 innings. Josh Collmenter did have an interesting 8th inning allowing two walks and a hit before getting Daniel Murphy to fly out to end the threat.

It was a brief stay at .500 for Arizona as they drop to 42-43. The Mets improved to 45-42. These two teams go back at it tomorrow at 1:10 PM MST as Patrick Corbin and Matt Harvey face off in the battle of Tommy John surgeries.

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