The New York Mets returned home Friday night as they were set to start a three game series with the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Mets finished 4-2 on their last road trip out on the west coast, taking both series from the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants.

Starting pitching has been the story as of late for the Mets, and it continued on Friday night with Noah Syndergaard on the mound. Syndergaard gave up a double to the first batter of the night, A.J. Pollock, who stole third base just two pitches later. Noah would get David Peralta to pop up in the infield for the first out, but Paul Goldschmidt would bring Pollock in on a sac-fly during the next at-bat. The Diamondbacks got out to an early 1-0 lead, but it didn’t last too long. 

The Mets came up with a plan to attack Diamondbacks pitcher Chase Anderson, and it worked in the bottom of the first inning. Curtis Granderson flew out, but Ruben Tejada continued his hot hitting with a single to left field. Daniel Murphy then flew out as well for the second out, but then Anderson committed a pitcher’s sin, allowing a walk to Wilmer Flores with two outs. 

That ended up hurting Anderson, as he would give up a three-run home run to Lucas Duda in the next at-bat. Duda got a fastball middle-in, and launched it to dead center field. It wouldn’t ended there as Michael Cuddyer would go back-to-back with Duda, as he also took Anderson deep, to give the Mets a 4-1 lead. 

That big inning for the Mets proved to be enough for Syndergaard as he took that lead and ran with it. Syndergaard was dominant with full command of all of his pitches, and had pinpoint accuracy. He had the Arizona hitters all over the place and constantly guessing what pitch he would throw next. 

Syndergaard finished the night with eight innings pitched and a career-high 13 strikeouts. He handed the ball off to teammate Jeurys Familia, who has been nothing short of spectacular so far this season, and should have been an All-Star.

Familia wasn’t great tonight but he still got the job done. He gave up a lead-off triple to Yasmany Tomás, who got lucky the call was reversed, when he initially got called out on a tag by Daniel Murphy. Familia struck out Jake Lamb for the first out, but would then give up a single to Wellington Castillo, which would bring Tomás from third. 

That hit would make it a 4-2 lead for the Mets, with the tying run coming to the plate. Chris Owings was up next for Arizona, but got sawed off by Familia’s sinker and hit a soft line drive to Ruben Tejada. Tejada tried to deke Owings by letting the ball drop, but the Mets couldn’t complete the double play to end the game. Arizona’s last chance was with Nick Ahmed, who like Owings, got sawed off inside and popped the ball up. However, Ahmed thought he fouled the ball off and did not run out of the box. Familia was under it and missed it, but luckily Ahmed wasn’t running and Murphy was there to make the throw to first base, giving the Mets a 4-2 victory.

Despite the hitting struggles the Mets continue to play well, as they have now won five of their last seven games. And with the Washington Nationals losing to the Baltimore Orioles the Mets are now just two games back in the division, and could shorten that deficit over the next two days.