CHICAGO -- The numbers, at face value, are fine. But they are not dominant. And that's troubling for a pitcher who is accustomed to being dominant.
Once again a shade less than his old shutdown self on Monday night, starter Noah Syndergaard allowed four runs on eight hits in the first three innings of the Mets' 7-4 loss to the Cubs in the series opener at Wrigley Field. Although he wasn't the losing pitcher -- reliever Jerry Blevins earned that distinction by allowing hits to all three batters he faced in the seventh -- Syndergaard completed the month of August with a 4.74 ERA in six starts.
"I just feel like every five days right now over the course of the season, I'm kind of wasting my ability to throw a baseball," Syndergaard said. "My stuff's too good to go out there and go six innings and give up four runs with nine base hits. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense."
Trouble found Syndergaard immediately, when former teammate Daniel Murphy became the first of four straight Cubs to record hits off him in the first inning. Anthony Rizzo, who later sparked the winning rally against Blevins, doubled home Murphy, but a rare caught stealing cut short that rally.

Two innings later, Syndergaard allowed a run on a wild pitch and two more on a Jonathan Lester single, giving back an early Mets lead. He did settle down to allow just two additional baserunners in the next three innings, but Blevins put the Cubs ahead for good when Rizzo and Benjamin Zobrist doubled off him in succession to open the bottom of the seventh. An inning later, Rizzo homered off Daniel Zamora for his third extra-base hit.
The Mets roughed up Lester with plenty of early offense, including an Austin Jackson RBI single in the first inning, a Michael Conforto homer (which traveled a projected 472 feet according to Statcast™) in the second and an Amed Rosario run-scoring hit later that inning. But issues on the basepaths -- Lester picked off Jackson and Rosario at first base in the game -- muted multiple early rallies.
By the middle innings, Lester had grown stingier, retiring 12 of the final 14 batters he faced. The Mets did not score again until Kevin Plawecki belted a game-tying homer in the seventh off Steve Cishek.

Afterward, the Mets were mostly left wondering, in a year that has seen both Jacob deGrom and Zack Wheeler demonstrate marked improvement under new pitching coach Dave Eiland, what is wrong with Syndergaard. The right-hander's average four- and two-seam fastball velocities are at the lowest points of his career, about 1 mph off their 2016 peaks. His strikeout rate has also reached a career low, while his walk rate, while not out of line with some previous seasons, is more than double what it was last year. It's all been enough for Syndergaard to call his season "disappointing" and "not really where I want to be," despite a 9-3 record and 3.51 ERA.
"I just want to go out there and throw the ball well every five days," he said.
Certainly, injuries have played a role in Syndergaard's issues; he missed nearly two months due to an index finger strain, and an additional start after contracting hand, foot and mouth disease in late July. But Syndergaard has been less than his best when healthy, making all six of his underwhelming August starts since returning from that viral illness.
"It just hasn't happened for him," manager Mickey Callaway said. "But when it does, he's going to settle in and he's going to get in that rhythm, and he's going to be one of the elite pitchers in the game."

While Callaway suggested that Syndergaard's lack of regular work has harmed him, Syndergaard downplayed that notion, saying he's "past the point where I can make excuses of being on the disabled list." Instead, Syndergaard bemoaned an inability to keep his mechanics consistent, resulting in faulty command.
"There will be certain pitches where I'll throw a good sinker, and it will have nice movement and nobody can hit it," Syndergaard said. "Then there will be times where my front side will fly open and it will move a foot, but it will move right across the middle of the plate."
YOU GOTTA SEE THIS
Above the ivy-covered wall in center field is a three-tiered batter's eye, cutting Wrigley Field's bleachers into three distinct sections. The topmost of them is not often at risk of incoming souvenirs, but Conforto reached it with a projected 472-foot solo homer off Lester in the second.

The home run was easily the longest of Conforto's career, and the longest by any Mets hitter since Statcast™ was introduced in 2015 -- surpassing a 463-foot dinger that Yoenis Cespedes hit earlier this season. It was also tied for the 10th-longest homer of any big leaguer in 2018.
FROM THE TRAINER'S ROOM
Mets second baseman Jeff McNeil, who departed Sunday's game after six innings due to right quad tightness, flied out as a pinch-hitter in the seventh inning to snap his NL-best 11-game hitting streak -- though McNeil has still hit safely in the last 13 games he's started in. The Mets hope he will be well enough to return to the starting lineup on Tuesday.
MITEL REPLAY OF THE DAY
Initially, third-base umpire Gary Cederstrom ruled Rizzo's seventh-inning double off Blevins foul. But Cubs manager Joe Maddon successfully challenged, with video replay showing the ball hitting the left-field line. Six pitches later, Rizzo raced home on Zobrist's go-ahead double.

Jason Heyward followed with a single before the next batter, Willson Contreras, hit an RBI fielder's choice to give the Cubs an insurance run. The runs were the first Blevins has allowed since before the All-Star break, snapping a streak of 10 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings.
UP NEXT
Mets righty deGrom (8-8, 1.71 ERA) will look to bolster his National League Cy Young Award credentials at 8:05 p.m. ET on Tuesday at Wrigley Field. New York also expects Brandon Nimmo (bruised left index finger) to return to the lineup against Cubs left-hander Cole Hamels.