Noah Syndergaard has pitched to mixed results since throwing six scoreless innings in his Los Angeles Dodgers debut. The right-hander’s latest outing was a quality start that came in a loss to the Chicago Cubs.
Syndergaard allowed three runs over six innings and finished with a season-high nine strikeouts. He dropped to 0-2 with a 5.63 ERA and 1.25 WHIP in three starts this season.
Syndergaard found success with a changeup that got eight strikeouts but his fastball velocity topped out at 92.8 mph, which was down compared to previous starts.
“Just the workload that I had in between starts. I threw quite a bit, so it might have been a little bit of that,” Syndergaard explained.
The 30-year-old has a reputation for being a tireless worker and that entails the unorthodox approach of throwing multiple days in a row between outings. The process is all part of Syndergaard’s quest to get his career back on track.
“I’m just hungry to get out of this funk finally for once,” he said. “I’ll probably manage the workload intensity for my next start. I’m not really focused on velocity during the game. I’m just trying to execute my pitches and get the other team out.”
Syndergaard further elaborated on his work between starts to be “a lot of tinkering” and “trial and error.”
He added: “I feel like the exploration I went on with my rehab, they say ignorance is bliss, but I just went down this path of trying to recreate myself after surgery, working on mobility and all this movement stuff. Now I think my body is just capable of a lot of different things.
“Whereas before surgery, my mechanics fit this mold and it was really easy to repeat. now I’m just trying to get back to efficiency and just using the slope to how it’s designed.”
Noah Syndergaard had ‘feel’ for changeup
Syndergaard’s fastball velocity being down created a challenge early as there was not enough separation on his pitch mix to keep hitters off balance, but a shift in strategy paid dividends.
“Changeups are pretty much a feel pitch, and I had good feel for it tonight,” Syndergaard said. “Executed it a lot better for the most part than the start against the Diamondbacks, with the exception of the double to (Cody) Bellinger. I feel like I definitely got better as the game went on.
“Changeup has to be a really important weapon for me, so I’ve got to get a feel for it early in the game and continue to work it in. So I think it’s always going to be part of the game plan.”
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