NEW YORK -- On a crazy day at Citi Field, Noah Syndergaard stole the show.
Less than an hour after Major League Baseball announced that New York Mets reliever Jenrry Mejia had been suspended for a full season for PED use -- just three weeks after Mejia returned from a half-season suspension for the same reason -- Syndergaard took the mound and made Mets fans forget about Mejia, at least for a while.
The 22-year-old flamethrower carried a perfect game into the seventh inning before Will Venable's leadoff single broke up the rookie's bid for history. It still was Syndergaard's best outing yet: eight innings, no runs, three hits, nine strikeouts and no walks, in a 4-0 victory over the San Diego Padres.
"I don't think any of us could have predicted the rise to where he's at this fast," Mets manager Terry Collins said. "All the reports we got on him [from the minor leagues] were: good arm, command needs to be helped, secondary pitches sometimes are ineffective. I gotta tell you something, this guy has not shown any of that here."
Syndergaard struck out Venable to open the game and breezed through the first six innings. Perhaps even more impressive, when he suddenly found himself facing runners on first and third with no outs in the seventh inning and the Mets clinging to a 2-0 lead, Syndergaard got Matt Kemp to pop out and Justin Upton to hit into a double play.
"You just gotta zone back in, get back on the mound and continue to make quality pitches," Syndergaard said.
Called up in early May, Syndergaard has now made 14 big league starts and certainly looks like he belongs. In nine of those 14 starts, he's given up one run or fewer. Only Dwight Gooden had more such starts (10) through 14 career starts in team history.
In his past six starts, Syndergaard is 3-1 with a 1.28 ERA. Overall, he is 5-5 with a 2.70 ERA.
"I feel like from the moment I made my debut in Chicago and where I'm at right now, it's just been a huge transition," Syndergaard said. "I've learned so much from [pitching coach] Dan [Warthen] and [Matt] Harvey and [Jacob] deGrom and Bartolo [Colon], even with the language barrier there."
Collins agreed.
"He is an absolute sponge when it comes to learning what he's gotta do to be successful," Collins said. "His first two weeks up here, every night he paid attention, every night he's asking questions, every night he's talking to guys on the bench about stuff. And he's just absorbed it. And now he's taking it to the mound."
With the win on Tuesday night, coupled with the Washington Nationals' loss, the Mets (52-48) are within one game of first place in the National League East. DeGrom (10-6, 2.05) has the second-lowest ERA in the major leagues. We know what Harvey (9-7, 3.16) can do. And now Syndergaard looks like a budding star, too.
"If we keep going and we can really, really play well the next couple of months, I don't know of too many teams that want to face this staff in a playoff situation," Collins said.
The Mets? The playoffs? It's looking more realistic by the day.