Mets vs. Pirates recap: These Mets go to eleven

The Mets snapped a three-game losing streak with authority on Wednesday night at Citi Field, as Noah Syndergaard made one of the best starts of his impressive young career. And it didn’t hurt that the team had no problem scoring runs at will, either.

Syndergaard gave up a leadoff single to John Jaso in the first, but after that, it looked like he might not give up another baserunner the rest of the way. He set down the next seventeen Pirates in order, with plenty of strikeouts along the way. Through eight innings, he had not allowed a run, and Terry Collins let Syndergaard hit for himself in the bottom of that inning and go out and begin the ninth.

He wasn't able to complete the shutout, as Jaso got him for a double and scored one out later on a pinch-hit double by David Freese. Syndergaard was visibly angry that he couldn’t complete the game, though his start was still awfully impressive. He struck out eleven, walked none, and gave up just that one earned run. He was charged with an unearned run, too, as Wilmer Flores made a throwing error that let Freese score after Jeurys Familia had taken over.

To go along with all of that, the Mets jumped out to an early lead with three runs in the first inning and kept going. Jeff Locke loaded the bases with nobody out in the first, and thanks to the combination of Wilmer Flores’s ensuing cue-shot ground out and a two-out double by Matt Reynolds later in the inning, the Mets led 3-0.

The mixed and matched hit types the rest of the way. In total, they finished with nineteen of them and one run for each one of Syndergaard’s strikeouts. Kelly Johnson and Flores hit home runs. Yoenis Cespedes, Johnson, Reynolds, and Rivera all had three hits on the night, and even the one out Cespedes made was hit hard. And Curtis Granderson, Flores, and Asdrubal Cabrera had two hits apiece. Every Mets hitter except Syndergaard himself had a hit in the game.

Coming off the losses over the three games heading into last night’s, it was a much-needed laugher of a win. And that Syndergaard guy might be good.

Fangraphs