Phillies turn to Noah Syndergaard with season seemingly on the line in Game 5

The first pitch Noah Syndergaard ever threw in a World Series game sailed up and in, dropped the hitter to the dirt in the batter’s box, and sent a stadium into a frenzy.

The Mets lost the first two games of the 2015 series, including a loss two days earlier to Kansas City by six runs. They needed a spark, which Syndergaard provided with a 98-mph fastball that soared to the backstop.

Seven years later, the Phillies are hoping he can do the same for them.

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The Phillies — a day after being no-hit in a 5-0 loss to Houston in Game 4 — will turn to Syndergaard on Thursday with their season seemingly on the line. A win and the Phillies fly to Houston with a three-games-to-two series lead. A loss and the Phillies need to win two straight on the road to capture the franchise’s third world championship.

They don’t need Syndergaard to throw high and tight — his fastball only hovers now around 95 mph — but just need him to keep them in the game for about three innings. That will be enough of a spark.

“He stepped up huge for us against the Padres and there’s no reason why he can’t do it again,” said Rhys Hoskins as Syndergaard recorded four late outs in the Game 4 win of the National League Championship Series. “I’m sure he’s looking forward to it. I know he has experience in this situation and he’s pitched in the World Series before. We’ll be ready.”

Syndergaard started the division series clincher against Atlanta and the one run he allowed over three innings is a line the Phillies would take on Thursday. Once able to lean on his fastball, Syndergaard has been more reliant this season on breaking pitches as he works his way back from Tommy John surgery he underwent in March 2020.

He said Wednesday that he has had to “adapt and change my way of pitching.”

“I’m just focusing on being who I can be,” Syndergaard said. “I’m not trying to get outside my realm of a pitcher. I definitely learned a lot and feel like I’ve evolved as a pitcher, not just a thrower, over the course of this year.”

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Syndergaard last threw more than 35 pitches in an outing on Oct. 1. The pitcher who was powerful enough to be called Thor seems this postseason to simply be a three-inning arm.

The Phillies had higher hopes when they added him at the trade deadline. But they aren’t looking for Thor on Thursday. Three quality innings would suffice. The Phillies have a rested bullpen — José Alvarado and Zach Eflin should be available after pitching Wednesday — to piece together the rest of the game if Syndergaard keeps them in it.

The Phillies need Syndergaard to hold his own against Justin Verlander, who underwent Tommy John surgery five months before him and rehabbed alongside the pitcher in Florida. Verlander was the American League’s best pitcher this season but has looked human in each of his three postseason starts, including when the Phillies rallied against him in Game 1 to climb out of a five-run hole.

It will be Syndergaard’s job to just give the Phils a shot. The expectations have changed, but a big game in October is what the Phillies had in mind when they added Syndergaard.

“We knew we were going to need depth if we were playing into November,” Hoskins said. “He took the ball for us when asked to and in a bunch of different roles at the end of the regular season, the second half, and the playoffs. I’m excited for him. He’s a competitor. He’s ready for it.”

Syndergaard said he was a naive rookie when he first tasted the World Series. The 9-3 win against Kansas City in Game 3 was just the 27th start of his career. He was 23 years old and reaching the World Series seemed easy. But Syndergaard had to wait seven years and a difficult injury process to get back.

He said he did not throw that fastball at Alcides Escobar with the intent to hit him. Instead, he was just trying to fire a pitch that the leadoff man — who had been aggressive in the first two games — could not hit.

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The Royals said afterward that they didn’t like it, calling the pitch “unprofessional.” Escobar looked at Syndergaard and shook his head as he sat in the dirt. The Royals hollered from their dugout and Citi Field came unglued.

Syndergaard, even if it was not his intention, gave the Mets a spark. And now the Phillies are looking for a jump.

“This year’s just been kind of a whirlwind for me,” Syndergaard said. “I think anyone who gets traded in the middle of the year, used as like a rental piece, it kind of puts anyone out of their comfort zone. But I think it’s really helped me grow as a person and as a pitcher.”