Mets: Noah Syndergaard and company firing strikes in win over Phillies

New York Mets ace Noah Syndergaard took the hill on Wednesday for his second start of 2018. Despite a short outing, “Thor” fanned opposing batters at will.

In Noah Syndergaard’s second start of the season live on Facebook, a 92-pitch performance forced him out after four innings. The New York Mets ace received a surprisingly quick hook despite an otherwise strong performance.

The four frames he pitched weren’t great but weren’t bad either. The Philadelphia Phillies scored two runs on four hits and two walks. One of the runs scored as a result of a Carlos Santana steal of home.

Syndergaard did bring his strikeout game again as he racked up seven strikeouts. He now has 17 on the season through just 10 innings.

When Robert Gsellman took over for the Mets in the fifth inning, the score was tied at 2. With the pressure on, how would he do?

In Gsellman’s first outing of the season, he threw a perfect inning, striking out all three batters he faced. In his second outing, he went two-thirds of an inning and gave up two hits and a strikeout.

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Gsellman’s third outing was no different and looked very much like Seth Lugo’s recent performance. He needed just six pitches to retire the first three batters, which included one strikeout. His second inning of work was perfect as well, with two strikeouts.

At this point in the game, Gsellman had thrown only 3.2 innings for the season but struck out seven. His final strikeout of the sixth also marked the fourth multiple strikeout game for Mets pitching through five games.

Hansel Robles came in for the seventh inning. He has a history of good April baseball, last season he was 4-0 with a 1.84 ERA on April 30^th. In 2016, he had a 1.69 April ERA. In his first outing of 2018, Robles needed 14 pitches to strike out all three batters he faced.

Including this game, Robles has a 1.75 ERA in April outings since the start of the 2016 season.

A.J. Ramos came in for the eighth and struck out one in a perfect inning.

For the ninth inning, Jeurys Familia came in with a 4-2 lead and closed the door on the Phillies. He gave up a leadoff single, but a double play and strikeout earned him his third save of the season. The win went to Robert Gsellman.

The final line for Mets pitchers included the following:

Noah Syndergaard: 4IP, 4H, 2BB, 2ER, 7K
Robert Gsellman: 2IP, 0H, 0BB, 0ER, 3K, W
Hansel Robles: 1IP, 0H, 0BB, 0ER, 3K
A.J. Ramos: 1IP, 0H, 0BB, 0ER, 1K
Jeurys Familia: 1IP, 1H, 0BB, 0ER, 1K, SV
Strikeouts through 5 games: 61

Next: Matt Harvey, Seth Lugo dominant in 2018 debuts

The Mets return to action on Thursday when they will hope to continue this trend versus the Washington Nationals. Can they pick up another win thanks to a solid pitching performance or will they need a little more help from the bats?