New York Mets

A little excitement…maybe drama too?…awaits New York Mets and Kansas City Royals as Noah Syndergaard takes mound in opening week rematch.

By David Hong

New York Mets manager Terry Collins announced that Matt Harvey will be the Opening Day starter versus the defending World Series champion Kansas City Royals.

On Sunday, Collins announced that last season’s rookie starter Noah Syndergaard will pitch in the second game against the Kansas City Royals.

Part of the reason may have to do with the uncertainty surrounding the status of Jacob deGrom, with his wife expected to give birth to a baby during the opening week of the season.

Either way, this will definitely add even more excitement and drama to opening week. Not only because Syndergaard is exciting to watch with his hard heater, but what happened back in the World Series between the Mets and the Royals.

Syndergaard was the winning pitcher in the Mets lone World Series win in Game 3, but before that, back in the first inning, he started that game with a little message that added some fuel to it.

Syndergaard’s first pitch in Game 3 was a high heater inside to Royals’ leadoff hitter, Alcides Escobar, that nearly hit the Royals shortstop and sent him sprawling to the ground.

Escobar, as Mets fans knew painfully, started the World Series by hitting an inside the park home run off Harvey in Game 1 on the first pitch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Du18epH487s

Syndergaard figured Escobar and the Royals felt too comfortable in the batters box in the first two games of the World Series. So the man nicknamed “Thor” decided to send a little message to make them feel a little more uncomfortable by throwing a 98 mph fastball inside.

After the pitch, Escobar glared at Noah while still on the ground, and Mike Moustakas was shown, yelling at Syndergaard from the dugout. It clearly caught the Royals attention, and even though KC did score three runs off Syndergaard in the first two innings, they didn’t score a run the rest of the way. Thor would cruise through six innings en-route to a 9-3 Mets win.

But that wasn’t it.

After the game, when Syndergaard was asked about how the Royals felt about that first pitch, he responded that if they had a problem, they can meet him 60 feet from the mound.

So expect some early-season fireworks in the second game between the tall right hander and the Royals. This time it will be in Kansas City, so expect Syndergaard to hear it from the Royals’ faithful.

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Syndergaard, however, doesn’t seem too bothered by it. He’s mentioned a lot about wanting to pitch in the first two games at KC, and after what he showed in Game 3, the man doesn’t seem intimidated by anyone.

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Other than God, sports are my biggest love. My teams are the Mets, Knicks, NY Giants, NY Rangers and St Johns basketball (St. John's alumni). I especially love the Mets like crazy, more than any other team and seeing them win the World Series would be a dream come true and definitely the best sports moment. The Knicks are a close second. I also like to write, so combine that with my passion for sports equals a perfect scenario, I would love to do sports writing long term. If not that, then probably sports broadcasting, cause I love to talk sports as well. In addition to writing for ESNY, I'm also currently writing for Metsmerizedonline.