Mets’ right-hander Noah Syndergaard gave the Mets a scare on Friday night after exiting the Mets-Marlins game to examine his finger. It appeared to be the same finger that had been plaguing him for the last two weeks, when he first suffered a blood blister during his Opening Day start. Thankfully, the injury Syndergaard sustained on Friday was nothing more than a torn fingernail, and Mets’ manager Terry Collins told reporters that the 24-year-old ace should be good to go for his next start. Newsday’s Marc Craig adds that he’ll have two fake nails glued onto his pointer and middle fingers as well.
Aside from the finger issues, it’s been a fairly smooth start to the season for Syndergaard. There are no lingering signs of the elbow injuries he sustained in 2016, and he sailed through 13 innings with two runs and nine strikeouts prior to Friday’s appearance. He appeared to be in some discomfort during the game, however, and allowed six hits, two runs and struck out four batters over six innings and 87 pitches.
Syndergaard is working on the follow-up to an extraordinary campaign for the 2016 Mets, during which he turned in a 2.60 ERA, 2.1 BB/9, 10.7 SO/9 and career-best 6.5 fWAR. A torn fingernail isn’t a fun experience, no matter the circumstances, but there doesn’t appear to be any health issue standing in the way of the right-hander’s continued dominance this season.
