NEW YORK -- Noah Syndergaard might have something to say about the National League Rookie of the Year competition before this season ends.
Syndergaard produced his third straight stellar performance, striking out a career-high 13 batters and throwing a career-high 116 pitches as the New York Mets beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 4-2 in Friday’s series opener at Citi Field.
Syndergaard allowed one run on four hits and two walks in eight innings to reduce his season ERA to 3.11. He has allowed three runs in 22 innings in his past three starts.
The Mets (45-42) pulled within two games of the Washington Nationals for first place in the NL East and within two games of the Chicago Cubs for the second NL wild-card spot with Friday's victory.
Syndergaard has considerable ground to make up in a rookie race that features Los Angeles’ Joc Pederson, Philadelphia’s Maikel Franco, Arizona’s Yasmany Tomas, Chicago’s Kris Bryant and San Francisco’s Matt Duffy and Chris Heston.
Last year, NL Rookie of the Year winner Jacob deGrom had a much slimmer field of competitors, headlined by Cincinnati’s Billy Hamilton.
“He’s getting confident,” rookie catcher Kevin Plawecki said about Syndergaard. “He knows his stuff can play here -- and not only play here, but really dominate. He’s been doing tremendous. The more of these good starts he puts together, the confidence just keeps building.”
Syndergaard allowed a game-opening double to A.J. Pollock and eventually a sacrifice fly to Paul Goldschmidt in the first inning, but that was the lone run he surrendered. A year ago with Triple-A Las Vegas, Syndergaard noted, early damage might have led to combustion.
“I feel like after what happened in the first inning, I was able to just be relaxed and go forward after that,” Syndergaard said. “A lot of my worser outings last year in Vegas started off with three or four runs in the first inning. I just couldn’t get out of the first inning without another run being scored.
“I was able to not press the panic button a little bit, have a short-term memory, forget about it and move on to the next batter.”
Said manager Terry Collins: “When you’ve got that kind of stuff, when you pound the strike zone, you’re going to get outs. A lot of strikes. A lot of breaking balls for strikes. A good changeup tonight. His last three have been tremendous.”
Collins pointed to how Syndergaard handled Yasiel Puig at Dodger Stadium in the rookie’s last start and then Goldschmidt on Friday night. After the first-inning sacrifice fly, the All-Star Goldschmidt struck out twice, then popped out in foul territory in the eighth to finish 0-for-3.
“The other day in Los Angeles, when he struck Puig out to end the one inning, that was a major league pitch that good pitchers have to make, and he made it,” Collins said. “Tonight, Paul Goldschmidt is the best hitter in this league, and Noah had a pretty good night against him because he made pitches.”
Collins said Syndergaard felt good and merited handling the eighth inning, especially because he will not pitch again for at least a week due to the All-Star break.
Still, Collins gave a sheepish expression when he learned postgame that 116 pitches marked Syndergaard’s career high.
“I didn’t know that was his career high. Another piece of information I needed to hear,” Collins dryly said. “He deserved to go back out there.”