If opponents just concentrate on what they can do against Noah Syndergaard’s pitches, well, good luck with that.
He was not particularly crisp Sunday and yet it was not exactly like he was a pitching piñata. Syndergaard still averaged better than 98 mph with his fastball, 92 with his slider and 90 with his changeup or a combination just about everyone who has ever lifted a ball would take on their best day.
The problem for Syndergaard — and we do not yet know the magnitude of that problem — is that opponents are no longer concentrating strictly on what the righty does with his arm as much as what they can do with their legs. So caught up in what Syndergaard does fast — throw a baseball — opponents have taken a while to capitalize on what he does slowly — namely deliver the ball to the plate.
However, the secret is now out.
Two starts ago, the Reds stole five bases. On Sunday, the normally cautious Giants stole three and moved — of all folks — Buster Posey on a pitch in a key fourth-inning sequence that proved substantial in San Francisco’s 6-1 triumph.
“You’ve got to beat him somehow and teams have figured out he doesn’t hold runners probably as well as he would like and as well as some other guys, but that’s something he can get better at,” David Wright said.
Is this a nuisance or an Achilles’ heel?
Syndergaard falls into a familiar subset from the game’s history. To generate full force, many power pitchers tend to be deliberate to the plate and tall power pitchers — like Syndergaard — take even longer to unspool.
There has been a forever debate about how much — if anything — power pitchers should sacrifice to be quick with men on base. The Mets went through years of this with Dwight Gooden, who still owns the record (60 in 1990) and second place (58 in 1988) for most steals allowed in a season.
But the psychology generally is that opponents cannot do as much damage with their legs as their bats, and that the strikeout is the great counterpunch to strand even guys who steal second and third. Jon Lester has essentially no pickoff move and allowed the most steals in the majors last year, yet remained an elite pitcher. Jake Arrieta allowed the fourth most and won the NL Cy Young.
But in an age of reduced run scoring simply gifting 90 feet is troubling. It bothered Madison Bumgarner that he permitted 27 steals in 2012 so much that he refined his slide step and has allowed just 20 steals since against 21 caught stealings.
“It gets frustrating,” Bumgarner said. “You don’t even get a chance for a double play. … You just have to believe in your slide step and find a good delivery.”
Syndergaard said he does not need a slide step, just to return to “better mechanics,” specifically quickening his leg kick. But that might be delusion based on opponents not fully seizing his weakness until now. Thieves have been successful in 27-of-29 career steal tries against Syndergaard and been caught at second just once.
The Giants came in with just seven steals in 2016, the second fewest in the NL to the Mets (5). Matt Duffy, who had no steals this season coming into the game, stole two bases Sunday. Both proved critical, especially with Bumgarner suffocating the Mets’ previously hot offense. Yep, against someone like Bumgarner, in particular, Syndergaard cannot be so generous with steals.
Duffy noted when a pitcher “is tough to string hits together against” the steal is more vital and Syndergaard “gave us that opportunity.”
Duffy stole second in a scoreless game in the fourth and took third on a Posey single. Brandon Belt hit what should have been an inning-ending double play grounder to second. But on a full count, Posey — nine steals in eight years — was running, just one out was recorded and Duffy scored. Syndergaard said he was not unnerved, but Hunter Pence hit a two-run homer two pitches later.
In the sixth, Duffy stole with two outs. Syndergaard said he was not bothered, but he waked Belt on four pitches (just his sixth walk all year) and was removed. Pence delivered an RBI single off Hansel Robles for the fourth run charged to Syndergaard.
“We can’t be that deliberate, that slow to the plate,” Terry Collins said. “You gotta change the pace, give the runners something different to look at. We’ve got to get better at it. I don’t want to get too carried away and all of a sudden get him out of sync completely because we dismantled his delivery out of the stretch and now he loses his command of his stuff, which you don’t want to have happen.”
It is a delicate middle ground that Syndergaard is now on. The guy who throws heat has to — of all things — learn how to do something faster.