Noah Syndergaard, Mets hammer Dodgers into submission

Blond locks dangling down to his shoulders, blue eyes burning beneath his cap, he looks like a character plucked from a Norse myth and clothed with a New York Mets uniform. His fans call him “Thor,” and Noah Syndergaard lives his gimmick. He is not a superhero. He merely resembles one when he steps between the lines of a baseball diamond.

In a 4-3 defeat of the Dodgers on Wednesday night, Syndergaard stilled his hosts with his arm and stunned them with his bat. He drove in four runs on a pair of home runs, becoming the first pitcher in nearly a decade to go deep twice in one night. As a sidebar to the offensive carnage, the right-hander logged eight innings, struck out six and stymied any Dodgers momentum created by Tuesday’s walk-off victory.

“You don’t expect that,” Dodgers Manager Dave Roberts said. “You don’t see that every day.”

Syndergaard cuts an imposing figure on the mound. His vitals — 6 feet 6, 240 pounds, 100-mph fastball — do not convey the sum of his presence. His command is pristine. His confidence is vast. His future looks glittering.

Yet his present form proved plenty difficult for the Dodgers (17-17) on Wednesday. He limited them to solo home runs by Corey Seager in the third inning and Yasmani Grandal in the fourth. He yielded one hit after the fourth, a bloop single by Seager in the eighth, before Jeurys Familia allowed a run in the ninth.

“You tip your cap to him,” Seager said. “What else can you do?

Syndergaard punished Kenta Maeda and contributed to the briefest start of Maeda’s young career. In his previous six outings, Maeda completed the sixth inning every time. On Wednesday he exited after facing two batters in the sixth and recording no outs.

Syndergaard wields an array of pitches that appears plucked from a video game. In addition to the triple-digit fastball, his slider resides in the lower 90s and so does his changeup, a speed on par with Maeda’s fastball.

When Syndergaard came to the plate in the third, he displayed no passivity. Maeda flung an 89-mph fastball over the middle. Syndergaard, who bats left-handed, pounded a solo home run over the right-field fence.

“They were definitely not good pitches, the ones he hit for home runs,” Maeda said.

Syndergaard added a slider to his arsenal in the second half of 2015 and unleashed it as a regular weapon this spring. The pitch, at times, appears unfair, moving with usual velocity for an offspeed offering. But it still requires proper location.

In the bottom of the third, Syndergaard left a slider over the plate. Seager ripped his third home run of the season and tied the score. An inning later, Syndergaard fired a 97-mph bullet to start an at-bat with Grandal. Once again, his command was lackluster. Grandal pounced on the waist-high pitch and belted a homer.

Handed a lead, Maeda lost his command in the fifth. He hit backup infielder Eric Campbell with a fastball. He walked backup catcher Rene Rivera after a sequence of five consecutive sliders failed to put Rivera away. Then Syndergaard came up again.

There were two on and none out. Syndergaard showed no intention of heroics. He squared his shoulders to bunt. But four pitches later, the count ran to 2-2. Syndergaard received a sign to swing away. When Maeda tried to spot a slider on the outside corner, low and away, he did.

Syndergaard was not fooled. He stayed back on the pitch and lifted a three-run shot to center field. Maeda stared into the outfield as Syndergaard jogged around the bases again.

“Even though I was able to get two strikes, I had to finish him off,” Maeda said. “I wasn’t able to do that.”

An inning later, Syndergaard batted again.

By then, Maeda had departed after yielding a pair of hits to start the inning. Roberts asked Chris Hatcher to douse the flames.

Hatcher responded by walking Rivera.

Up came Syndergaard with the bases loaded. For a couple minutes, the ballpark felt like Shea Stadium transplanted west.

Syndergaard teased the fans by smacking foul balls down the right-field line.

After a splitter in the dirt, Hatcher conferred with Grandal. They decided to stick with heat. Syndergaard whiffed on a 96-mph fastball.

“When you look at Maeda versus Syndergaard, you’re thinking a low-scoring game,” Roberts said.

“But you don’t expect Syndergaard to hit two homers.”

Follow Andy McCullough on Twitter: @McCulloughTimes