It has been a trying week for the New York Mets and their fans, and on Friday night it seemed as if things couldn’t get any worse as both Noah Syndergaard and Yoenis Cespedes left with injuries.
The New York Mets have been going through a bit of a rough patch this past week. First came the news that Matt Harvey would be out for the season after electing to have surgery for his newly discovered Thoracic Outlet Syndrome—the same condition that sent Phil Hughes of the Minnesota Twins to the operating table. Then in the third inning of Friday night’s game, Yoenis Cespedes left the game with what was later diagnosed as a strained right quadricep. Finally, in the fifth inning of last night’s game, perhaps the most frightening sight for the Mets and their fans occurred.
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It was already a tense night with the Mets playing the rival Washington Nationals at Citi Field. Going into the game, the Mets were three games back in the standings, with a chance to gain some ground on the NL East Division-leading Nats. And it was a big matchup between Noah Syndergaard who was looking for his 10th win of the season and Stephen Strasburg who was looking to stayed undefeated and earn his 12th win of the season.
In the top of fifth, the Mets were down 3-0 to the Nationals, thanks to a two-run home run in the second by Clint Robinson and an RBI double in the third off the bat of former Met Daniel Murphy. Syndergaard was trying to limit the damage when he suddenly lost velocity on his fastball. Usually, the 23-year-old right hander is throwing up around 98 and 99, but he threw a pitch meant to be a fastball that only hit 93. His catcher Rene Rivera knew something was wrong:
"“That pitch was a fastball and the velocity wasn’t there… You just know it catching the ball. I think you can notice when you throw 99 and 91. You can tell right away.”"
After the pitch that only registered 91 on the stadium’s radar gun, both Rivera and Mets manager Terry Collins went out to the mound, along with team trainer Brian Chiklo. Syndergaard told them his arm went dead and said, “I’ve lost it.”
Late last month, it was revealed that Syndergaard was pitching with bone spurs in his elbow, the same affliction fellow Mets starter Steven Matz is currently playing through, and now this. Syndergaard, according to reporters is downplaying this latest issue, but he also denied having the bone spurs before the team announced that he did in fact have them:
"“My first full season in the big leagues. I’ve thrown a lot of pitches, thrown a lot of innings so far. I just think it boils down to just a little bit of fatigue. There’s no pain, there’s no discomfort in my elbow regarding the bone spur. It felt like I could still go out there and pitch through that. It just really all boils down to a little shoulder fatigue.”"
Up to this point in the season, Syndergaard has thrown 105 2/3 innings and seems well on his way to eclipsing his career high of 198 2/3 from last year.
Cespedes made a really nice sliding catch on a ball hit by Ben Revere for the first out of the third inning, but also had to leapfrog over shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera to avoid a bigger collision, and it seems that’s when his injury occurred. He continued to play the field for the rest of the inning and was replaced by Juan Lagares in the fourth.
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Cespedes, who made the 2016 National League All-Star team and expected to start in the outfield, is batting .303 with 21 homers and 52 RBI this season. Collins said after the game that he suspects both Syndergaard and Cespedes will not be playing for the National League on Tuesday night in San Diego.