The Los Angeles Dodgers earned a 4-2 win over the Cleveland Guardians, but also suffered a 12-1 loss to the San Francisco Giants with Noah Syndergaard laboring a bit at Camelback Ranch in split-squad action on Tuesday.
Syndergaard was on the mound for his fourth start of the spring during the home game and looked to continue his early success with the team. He entered the game with a 0.96 ERA in 9.1 innings of work.
Syndergaard, however, endured his worst outing in a Dodgers uniform as he allowed six runs in 4.1 innings pitched with three strikeouts and a walk. The right-hander was removed with two outs in the bottom of the second but re-entered the following inning.
After the game, Syndergaard discussed his struggles and revealed he has been dealing with blister issues, via SportsNet LA:
“I felt OK. I battled the elements a little bit and I have some blister-nail issues that I’m trying to battle through. The training staff is doing a great job of mending those. All the starts I’ve had in Spring Training, I’ve felt really good. This one just kind of felt out of whack from the beginning. But I was able to grind through it, get my pitch count up and continue to get that workload up.”
Syndergaard said the blister first surfaced a few months ago but mentioned he has battled them for years:
“It’s kind of a new thing that popped up. It’s kind of weird. I’ve dealt with it for three months, four months that I’ve been throwing. I’m not sure what the new reasoning is for why it popped up but it’s something I’ve dealt with one and off my whole career.”
It isn’t uncommon for pitchers to occasionally be plagued by blisters as the likes of Walker Buehler and Rich Hill have dealt with them in recent years.
While a blister can take a few weeks to heal, it doesn’t appear Syndergaard is in jeopardy of beginning the 2023 season on the injured list. The 30-year-old will likely make one more start in Spring Training, which could come during the exhibition Freeway Series against the Los Angeles Angels.
Noah Syndergaard focused on getting ‘1 percent better’
One of Syndergaard’s main focuses this spring is increasing his fastball velocity, which has steadily trended upward with each outing. Aside from that, Syndergaard is trying to incrementally improve every time he takes the mound.
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