Zachary Wheeler gets his pitch count risin’
He doesn’t care for an early hook
Jason Vargas sees the order twice ‘n’
Mickey figures out he is cooked
Jake deGrom is a Cy Young winner
Ain’t ya glad he showed up? (Oh yeah!)
And when the ballclub is fallin’ apart
Sometimes Matz gets it all sewed up
And then there’s Thor
He strikes out ten
And then there’s Thor
Gives up no runs
And then there’s Thor
Goes all the way
And then there’s…
Mascot-trashin’
Dinger-bashin’
Beats the Reds in solo fashion
Right on Thor!
***
Translation for all you kids out there who aren’t fluent in Maude: Noah Syndergaard threw a 1-0 shutout and homered to defeat Cincinnati at Citi Field on Thursday afternoon. The Bea Arthur reference in a 2019 baseball game recap is no rarer than the concept of a Met pitcher doing what Noah did.
That, when broken down by its component parts, was as rare as a Mets pitching/hitting performance gets.
• Nine innings from a starter surely seems exotic to the point of extinct, but it actually still happens once in a great while. The Mets chalked up three complete games last season.
• Allowing zero runs across those nine innings is highly unusual, yet not without precedent in this modern world. Syndergaard himself achieved such a feat on the final day of 2018.
• A Mets pitcher homering will never not be cause for jubilation, but with four instances of DH-defying hurler power in the books already in 2019, we can no longer refer to it as a wholly infrequent phenomenon.
• Winning 1-0 while driving in the run that makes you the victor is an extremely uncommon occurrence, but Met examples exist. Most famously, Jerry Koosman and Don Cardwell turned the trick in the same doubleheader at Pittsburgh in 1969. More obscurely, we’ve also had Buzz Capra versus the Giants at Shea in 1972 (the day before Willie Mays’s debut); Ray Sadecki at Atlanta in 1974; and Nino Espinosa at Philadelphia in 1977. Forty-one years passed without an addendum until Wheeler beat the Pirates, 1-0, last July at PNC Park, doubling in the “1” himself.
But Zack, who was the only pitcher in this scenario to register his RBI with an extra-base hit, went only six. Cardwell and Capra each turned the ball over to Tug McGraw after eight to save their respective superlative efforts. Koosman, Sadecki and Espinosa went nine, but no, they didn’t homer.
Noah homered (in the third inning, high and deep to the opposite field, off Tyler Mahle).
Noah completed what he started (scattering four hits, walking only one).
And, for that matter, Noah became the only member of the seven-Met 1-0/1-RBI club to notch double-digit strikeouts, including a ninth-inning K that Wavin’ Jesse Winker was hilariously ejected in the middle of (bye Jesse!).
Koosman-Cardwell Arms has been headquarters to a very exclusive society for a half-century. After fifty years, it’s been compelled to add a private penthouse suite. You homer for your only run in a 1-0 complete game win as Noah Syndergaard did, you have earned the most singular view of them all.
That Kooz and Cardwell did it on the same day, in a pennant race, lives on as evidence of actual miracles that should have had Gil Hodges canonized, never mind inducted in Cooperstown. But yes, Thor earned himself a penthouse suite today.
What Mets pitcher will first come up to bat and be faced with an infield shift?
That was a masterpiece.
I really thought The Franchise did this once in the early 1970’s, but apparently I was mistaken.
I will never get tired of saying this: Designated hitter my ass. Rob Manfred and Tony Clark should take note.
Jeurys? SIT!
Briliant Greg – simply brilliant!
And it was a done on a day game which meant Mets Across the Pond could watch it LIVE!
What a BEAUTY. This to me was why I love baseball. Tightly contested, no room for error and great pitching. Gives me plenty of optimism for the rest of the season
Glass half-full – Mets score only one run in two full games and manage to win one of them.
Glass half-empty – Mets give up only one run in two full games and manage to lose one of them.
Man we needed those starts from our first two – deGrom and Thor both looking like the studs we know them to be. Hope the bats wake up on this road trip. Time to separate from the pack in Milwaukee and San Diego if we’re contenders.
Did you notice who was warming up in pen with man on base in 9th in save situation? None other than….Gsellman, since Mickey had used Diaz 4 times in 5 days–none in a classic save situation! That man can really handle a pen.
This remind me a little of the Peanuts cartoon strip when Peppermint Patty shows up in town. She subs for Charlie Brown on the mound, pitches a no-hitter, slugs five solo homers, and winds up losing 27-5 on 27 unearned runs.
It’s good to know the Mets will never be quite that bad.
By the way, I recall in the game Zack Wheeler pitched last week (now the second most dominating Mets pitching performance of the year), Howie Rose referred to his day as Ruthian. All due respect, but if anyone deserves that descriptive on the Mets, it’s Noah. Dude looks like a power threat every time he’s up.
Can we agree that it was the hair’s fault all along? Let them flow, Noah, let the wonderful angelic locks flow, and all will be well …!
Yes, also possibly the beard. Welcome back vintage Thor!
Yes. Samsonesque.
He tore Winker and company’s house down.
God’ll get you for that, Greg.
Right on Greg!
I know a lyricist like Greg will concur that Thursday May 2nd 2019 was probably the most etymologically appropriate Thor’s Day ever.
[…] We Will Thank You for That, Noah » […]
[…] capture a contest for the Mets, Noah Syndergaard, put them in position to lose their next. Unlike last week versus Cincy, Noah neither homered like a slugger (his one base hit led to him being picked off) nor dealt like […]