The New York Mets played their home opener at Citi Field on Thursday afternoon, and Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg outdueled Noah Syndergaard in a 4-0 victory.
Syndergaard, who voiced his complaints over the Mets’ spring training itinerary last month, was critical of the club’s scheduling decision after the loss, and argued that the team wasn’t put in a position to win the game.
“Losing doesn’t feel good, but I don’t think we were in the proper situation to win the ballgame based on the rest of the guys, sleep, and travel….
Reporter: Would you guys have rather played tonight?
Syndergaard: Tonight, or a day game yesterday. Would have been nice.”
The Mets beat the Marlins 6-4 in Miami on Wednesday night, in a three-hour game that began at 6:10 p.m. local time. The turnaround for an early afternoon game the following day in New York was always going to be tough, and the Mets were delayed after two players were randomly selected for drug testing on Wednesday night.
Teams are able to set the time for home games after the master schedule for the upcoming season is released each year, so in this case, the Mets probably would have been wise to avoid 1:10 p.m. start time following a road trip. Fortunately for Syndergaard and the Mets, Thursday’s game was the only instance all season where the Mets will play an early afternoon game at home the day after a road game, barring makeup dates.
