© D. Ross Cameron-USA TODAY Sports
For the second-straight day, the sun was out for a beautiful matinee game between the Giants and New York Mets. And for the second-straight game, the Giants could only muster a single run in the face of a lights-out start by a Mets pitcher. The Giants lost 4-1 as Noah Syndergaard threw for a full nine innings of two-hit baseball.
After Steven Matz struck out a career-high 11 batters in eight innings yesterday, Syndergaard followed suit, striking out 11 Giants and failing to allow a hit after the fourth inning. It was Syndergaard’s first-career complete game. His only baserunner after the fourth came from an error.
The Giants received a fantastic pitching performance of their own from Chris Stratton. Outside of a two-run home run from Michael Conforto in the second inning, Stratton was near-perfect. He allowed just one hit after that, retiring the final 11 batters he faced. While Noah Syndergaard struck out six Giants batters, Stratton was not one of them.
In his only at-bat, Stratton gave the Giants their first – and only – run of the game. After he fouled off a pair of pitches from Syndergaard, Stratton hit a deep line drive to right field, allowing Alen Hanson – who had just tripled – to tag and score from third.
The sacrifice fly is something the Giants have struggled to pull off all season, let alone by pitcher against a triple-digit thrower in Syndergaard. The team is batting .217 this season with two outs and at runners in scoring position, the sixth-worst mark in baseball.
Stratton’s efficiency does beg the question why he was pulled from the game after six innings and just 75 pitches, 50 of which were strikes. He demonstrated he has long-game potential after going eight scoreless innings in his last outing. However, that last outing took 117 pitches, a potential cause for why his day wasn’t extended into the seventh.
After Stratton’s day was over, Ray Black threw a scoreless inning before Sam Dyson came in for a tough eighth. He allowed a leadoff single to Tomas Nido – who entered the game batting .170 – before Syndergaard moved him over with a sacrifice bunt. Then Amed Rosario and the Giant-killing Jeff McNeil – batting 11-for-21 (0.524) against the Giants this season – hit a two-run single to give the Mets a 4-1 lead.
The loss drops the Giants back to 68-70.
