The Los Angeles Dodgers earned an 8-3 win over the San Diego Padres in a game that saw Noah Syndergaard turn in his best outing of the spring.
The right-hander collected a pair of strikeouts across three perfect innings and didn’t throw more than nine pitches in a single frame. Syndergaard’s fastball velocity also got up to 94 mph, which represented a slight increase from his 2023 debut against the Cincinnati Reds.
Syndergaard threw two scoreless innings in his first appearance of Cactus League, but was disappointed his fastball topped out at only 93 mph. He additionally wasn’t pleased with mechanics.
Syndergaard felt he improved in both areas against the Padres while acknowledging his velocity is still a work in progress, per Doug Padilla of the Southern California News Group:
“I put a lot of work in between starts,” Syndergaard said. “The velocity still isn’t there but the conviction on my pitches was. … I wasn’t expecting it to be perfect today but it’s definitely trending in the right direction.”
Syndergaard went a combined 10-10 with a 3.94 ERA in 25 games (24 starts) for the Los Angeles Angels and Philadelphia Phillies last season. The former All-Star has battled inconsistency since a breakout campaign in 2016, which can largely be attributed to injuries.
Syndergaard is entering his second full season since undergoing Tommy John surgery in March 2020, and while his velocity isn’t where he would like it to be, he has gotten good results on the mound thus far.
Noah Syndergaard believes he could gain velocity with changes to delivery
Syndergaard said earlier this spring that he could potentially add velocity to his fastball by making a few changes to his delivery. “My biggest Achilles heel is delivery,” he explained.
“If I can get my delivery down to utilize my strength and power, and use it in an efficient manner, I think I’ll be alright. But 92-93 (mph) is not it.”
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