Noah Syndergaard He felt no extra adrenaline or emotion as he walked up the hill at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday in his first-ever start against… New York Metsthe team he made to the big leagues in 2015, won the World Series Game of the Month for October, and walked away after the 2021 season.
“There are a lot of new faces out there,” said Syndergaard, who signed a one-year, $13 million contract with the Dodgers in December. “Men love [Brandon] Nemo, Pete [Alonzo]Drew Smith… I had the luxury of playing with them and wearing a Mets jersey with them. But other than that, it was just another day in the yard.”
Well, not quite, unless your idea of a typical day on the field includes a future Hall of Famer being ejected for having a foreign substance in his hand, a violation that would likely result in Mets right-hander Max Scherzer a 10-game suspension.
The Dodgers got their big break when Scherzer was thrown midway through the fourth inning of a scoreless game, and it looked like they might take advantage when they scored an instant run in the bottom of the fourth off Mets reliever Jimmy Yacabonis.
But the Dodgers pulled off only two runs and two hits over the final five innings of a final 5-3 loss to the Mets before a crowd of 43,990 at Chavez Raven to fall to 9-10.
“There was an adjustment,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of Scherzer’s sudden departure. “Obviously, when you get someone else outside of Max Scherzer, you love your chances, but unfortunately, we couldn’t take advantage.”
Syndergaard pitched well, giving up two runs and five hits in six innings, striking out two and walking two walks, his only glaring mistake being a fat changeup that Nimmo squashed for a two-run homer to right field in the fifth inning, a highlight of the Mets center fielder’s second career of five matches.
Syndergaard, who is 0-3 with a 4.91 ERA in four starts, is clearly not as dominant as he was before Tommy John surgery in 2021, when Fastball regularly hit triple digits, but he has had a slight uptick in speed from his previous start on Wednesday. His four-seater has a speed of 93.3 mph and 93.2 mph.
Dodgers outfielder Noah Syndergaard returned to the mound after giving up a two-run homer to the New York Mets in the fourth inning Wednesday at Dodger Stadium.
(Louis Cinco / Los Angeles Times)
“I think he’s got good stuff,” said Nemo, who has had four singles with Homer. “He doesn’t have a 98 anymore, but he’s figuring out how to play without it. He’s added a cutter, which helps him out. It’s not about beating players anymore, it’s pitching. I think he’s doing a good job of developing with that, and I think he’s going to make it through.”
Scherzer, who spent the last two and a half months of 2021 with the Dodgers, was also playing against his former team, but only lasted half as long as Syndergaard. The referees detected something sticky on Scherzer’s glove and hand in the second half and ordered him to change the gloves and wash his hand.
Scherzer complied, but before the fourth inning, his glove and hand were steadier, and he was thrown out by first base umpire Phil Causey. Scherzer claimed the adhesive was a mixture of legal rosin and agave. Cozzi, panel umpire and crew chief Dan Bellino thought otherwise.
“There was probably something more than just rosin, something that was so sticky that it was all over his palm, it was on the inside of his fingers,” Bellino said. “The whole hand was stickier than anything we’d checked before and, more importantly, worse than in the second half, when he was told he had to wash his hand.”
The Dodgers took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the fourth when Jason Heyward doubled, hit third on Miguel Vargas’ single and scored on David Peralta’s sacrifice fly.
JD Martinez added an RBI double in the eighth, Peralta hit a solo homer in the ninth, but the Mets had four hits against relievers Alex Vezia and Winsey Almonte in the seventh and eighth, scored on Tommy Pham’s sacrifice fly in the eighth, and Mark Canha hit a two-run double Shelby Miller in the ninth inning, with a lead of 5-2.
short hops
Shortstop Miguel Rojas was placed on the 10-day injured list with a left hamstring strain prior to Wednesday’s game and was replaced by utility player Yoni Hernandez. … Mookie Betts missed his second game on paternity leave, and may miss Thursday’s game before returning on Friday.