Stolen Bases The Key Against Syndergaard
When the Washington Nationals faced Syndergaard back in May, they only had five hits and one extra-base hit over seven innings. They did attempt one steal that night, but Revere ended up being caught stealing by Kevin Plawecki.
Last night, it was the exact opposite for the Washington Nationals. Even thought they squandered the first inning away by not scoring with bases loaded and no one out, they found a way to score five runs in the bottom of the third.
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In addition to the five runs scored in the inning, the Washington Nationals stole four bases (Revere, Bryce Harper, Anthony Rendon, and Danny Espinosa). Syndergaard has been easy to steal bases on this season. Teams are 28-for-31 on stolen base attempts and the 28 stolen bases are double than the pitcher who is second on that list in all of baseball (jake Arrieta and Ubaldo Jimenez with 14).
Another factor that helped the Nats last night was that Travis d’Arnaud was behind the plate. d’Arnaud has only thrown out five base runners this year and allowed 22 stolen bases. As I mentioned in the previous slide, the aggressive baserunning the team had this spring showed up in one of their biggest games of the year as they ended up being 6-for-6 stolen bases and 5-for-5 against Syndergaard.
Next: For Giolito And The Nats, The Future Is Now
Plus, they sent a message to the Mets last night by giving Syndergaard his worst outing of the season. He went only three innings, gave up five runs on seven hits, struck out five, and walked three as he picked up his first loss since May 6 against the San Diego Padres.