Mets starter Noah Syndergaard silences Royals in World Series rematch

The pitch was a 95-mph slider, blazing and precise, diving at the back leg of Royals designated hitter Kendrys Morales.

It was so blazing and so precise, in fact, that it led to a dispute after the game about whether Mets starter Noah Syndergaard had thrown a slider or a cutter.

One Royals official was sure it was a cutter. Who on this Earth throws a 95-mph slider? First baseman Eric Hosmer and Royals manager Ned Yost were convinced it was a slider.

These are the kind of arguments baseball teams have when they face Syndergaard, the 23-year-old Texan who tagged the Royals with their first defeat on Tuesday afternoon, a 2-0 loss to the New York Mets in front of 39,782 fans at Kauffman Stadium.

“There’s not a man on this Earth that I believe could hit any of those pitches,” Royals manager Ned Yost said.

The pitches in question came during the bottom of the sixth inning. The Royals had loaded the bases against Syndergaard on an error, a single and a walk. They trailed 2-0 with two outs in the inning. Syndergaard responded by throwing three straight sliders to Morales, none slower than 93 mph. The Royals’ designated hitter swung and missed three times.

“He was nasty,” third baseman Mike Moustakas said. “You’ve got to tip your cap.”

In one sense, starting pitchers are not supposed to throw 95-mph breaking balls that move like sliders. Then again, starting pitchers are not supposed to throw 99-mph fastballs for seven innings. Syndergaard did both on Tuesday, as the Royals dropped to 1-1 after a season-opening two-game set against their former World Series foes. Kansas City retained the championship trump card, as evidenced by the ring ceremony held before Tuesday’s game. But Syndergaard took the anticipated rematch, allowing just three hits while striking out nine over seven scoreless innings.

“He brought his A-game,” center fielder Lorenzo Cain said.

It was only five months ago that Syndergaard shook up the Fall Classic with a 98-mph fastball that danced near the chin of shortstop Alcides Escobar. The pitch opened Game 3 in New York, the only Mets victory of the series. The moment stirred the emotions inside the the Royals clubhouse and it elicited the following warning from Syndergaard.

“If they have a problem with me throwing inside, then they can meet me 60 feet, 6 inches away,” Syndergaard said. “I’ve got no problem with that.”

The Royals got even by winning the championship. But in the weeks before the season, a report surfaced from the Newsday newspaper in New York that suggested the Royals would seek retribution for Syndergaard’s words and deeds. On Tuesday afternoon, there was little trace of retribution — in any form. Syndergaard, a 6-foot-6, 220-pound specimen with a superhero’s nickname (Thor!), silenced the Royals with a devastating mix of power.

The Royals squandered a commendable effort from starter Chris Young, who allowed two runs in five innings. They also failed to convert their few scoring chances. They wasted an opportunity in the first, when Escobar tripled to right-center field. (Syndergaard struck out the next three batters.) They squandered another chance in the fifth, when Morales doubled to deep center field. (Alex Gordon and Salvador Perez struck out before Omar Infante grounded out.) They put three men on in the sixth. Still, they could not score.

“When a guy throws 100 mph, you tend to be ready for the fastball,” Hosmer said. “You want to be aggressive with him; you want to get to him early, but he just did a good job of mixing pitches.”

The Royals will now have two days off, the result of a scheduling quirk, before returning to Kauffman for a three-game weekend series against the Minnesota Twins. But first,Tuesday afternoon began with more pomp and more history. Two days after raising a championship flag above the team’s Hall of Fame, a crew of men and women in suits and ear-pieces rolled a group of tables onto the grass adjacent to home plate at Kauffman Stadium. On the tables laid boxes. Inside the boxes, bling, 2.5 carats of diamonds, 3.5 carats of genuine princess-cut sapphires, and 3.5 carats of genuine custom-cut sapphires. The face of the Royals’ World Series rings featured the famous “KC” logo and two words: World Champions. One by one, the Royals emerged from the dugout and picked up their reward.

“It was unbelievable,” Hosmer said. “It’s everything you work hard for in this game.”

As the game began, Syndergaard and Young exchanged scoreless frames for three innings. Young was making his season debut on three days’ rest, after throwing 40 pitches in his final spring training start on Friday. He replaced scheduled starter Ian Kennedy, who had nursed a hamstring issue last week. The Royals sought to exercise caution in the season’s opening week. Young responded with a workmanlike performance.

For three innings, he held the Mets without a hit. The stretch was broken when Mets second baseman Neil Walker turned on an 86-mph fastball with one man on base in the top of the fourth, sending a liner screaming into the right-field seats. The blast gave the Mets a 2-0 lead. Young was done two innings later, allowing two runs and three hits while throwing 93 pitches over five innings.

The offense was enough to sustain Syndergaard, who overpowered the Royals with a full-throttle repertoire — gas and more gas. For one day, Kansas City had no answer.

“His stuff was so good, we couldn’t put the ball in play,” Yost said. “It’s not one of those where you’re lamenting the fact you didn’t put the ball in play. You go back and look at those pitches, you take your hat off to him. He just made unhittable pitches.”

This story was originally published April 5, 2016 at 6:26 PM with the headline "Mets starter Noah Syndergaard silences Royals in World Series rematch."