They’re now down 3-1, but Mets fans would surely trade a loss tonight for a positive outlook regarding the 23-year-old performer who has emerged as the ace of the NY staff – a group that’s encountered many setbacks this season.
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The injuries to Cespedes and Syndergaard came hours after the Mets announced Opening Day starter Matt Harvey will undergo season-ending surgery to fix thoracic outlet syndrome.
Mets ace Noah Syndergaard is not expected to undergo further medical tests despite exiting Friday’s game with arm fatigue, manager Terry Collins said Saturday.
Syndergaard (9-4) experienced arm fatigue in the fifth inning and was lifted nearly immediately.
And like Syndergaard, Steven Matz is pitching with a bone spur in his pitching elbow. “I didn’t have any discomfort, just fatigue really”, Syndergaard told reporters after the Mets’ 3-1 loss.
Strasburg (12-0, 2.62 ERA) is the first National League pitcher to win at least his first 12 decisions in a season since Rube Marquard won his first 18 decisions for the New York Giants in 1912.
The flamethrower has already thrown 101 innings this year, whereas last year he threw 150 the entire year.
The Nationals are winning just about every time Strasburg takes the mound, leaving themselves a supremely confident bunch on the nights he pitches, even when it comes against an imposing opposing hurler like Noah Syndergaard, as was the case tonight.
New York Mets center fielder Yoenis Cespedes is unable to reach a fly ball by Washington Nationals’ Daniel Murphy in the third inning of a baseball game, Friday, July 8, 2016, in New York.
With only two games remaining until the All-Star break, Collins suggested the Mets probably would play short-handed for the remainder of the weekend and see how Cespedes is doing after the All-Star break in a week.
As for the game itself, the Nats got on the board in the second inning thanks to a two-run home run by Clint Robinson.
Syndergaard has a bone spur in the back of his pitching elbow and is being treated with anti-inflammatory medication.
“It’s disappointing, but hopefully there will be a lot more”, Syndergaard said.
If the New York Mets could hit the restart button on Friday, they’d do it in a heartbeat. “I’d like to give you one more but I can’t, ‘” Collins said.
Tyler Goeddel, who entered in the eighth inning as a pinch-hitter and remained in the game to play left field, made a diving catch of DJ LeMahieu’s sinking blooper to end the bottom of the eighth. NY is a very streaky team so that could be a big issue in this series with the Nats who have had New York’s number of late and will have a glaring pitching edge in this one.
Brandon Nimmo would single right after the home run, but Strasburg didn’t give up a hit for the rest of the night after that single. He’s batting.409 with 15 RBIs and five of his career-high 15 homers vs.
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Jonathan Papelbon pitched a ideal ninth for his 18th save in 20 chances.
