In front of a raucous home crowd and many of his friends and family, Steven Matz had the opportunity to pitch his New York Mets to the NLCS for the first time since 2006.
Unfortunately, the man opposing him was the reigning NL MVP and three-time Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw.
The Mets were defeated 3-1, with Matz suffering his first big league loss–although it will not count towards the official stats due to it being the postseason.
Matz hadn’t pitched in a game since September 23 against the Cincinnati Reds but he was sharp early. He struck out leadoff batter Enrique Hernandez on a nasty 81 MPH curveball. He induced a weak fly ball off the bat of Howie Kendrick before coaxing a weak grounder from Adrian Gonzalez. His fastball was touching 96 MPH with movement and his change up had some nice downward action.
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He had a smooth second inning as well, working around a walk to Corey Seager, and retired the side on weak pop outs by Yasiel Puig and A.J. Ellis.
He did run into trouble in the third, however.
After striking out Justin Ruggiano, he allowed a single to Kershaw on a hanging curveball. Two pitches earlier, he had him looking foolish on the pitch but this time he left it up and the lefty-swinging Kershaw was prepared. The next batter, Hernandez grounded an 85 MPH change up to Murphy who made the smart play to get the lead runner.
With two outs, Matz got ahead of Kendrick 0-2 but after missing with a fastball he allowed a single up the middle which allowed the runner to get to third base. That brought the dangerous Gonzalez up to the plate. He took a fastball for ball one. On the next pitch, Matz tried to hook a curveball in the zone. Gonzalez was badly jammed but he was just strong enough to get it over the infielder’s heads for an RBI single to get the Dodgers on the board. The next batter, the former Met Justin Turner, continued his assault on Mets’ pitching and hooked a 1-0 curve down the left field line. Cespedes had trouble handling it off the wall–although both runs probably would’ve scored anyway. It opened the game up to 3-0. Against Kershaw, it appeared over.
This is not Brett Anderson on the hill.
The Ward Melville grad did settle in the next two innings. He worked around an A.J. Ellis single in the fourth inning and got a strikeout of Ruggiano–who just missed a home run on the previous pitch but it went foul.
The Mets scored their lone run in the fourth inning on a long home run from Daniel Murphy, who became the second player to hit two home runs in one season off Kershaw.
In the fifth inning, Matz allowed a leadoff single to Hernandez on a 3-1 sinker. After a coaching visit to the mound, he settled down and retired Kendrick and Gonzalez before striking out Seager to end the frame.
That was it for Matz after five innings and 85 pitches. He threw 50 for strikes. He probably would’ve pitched the sixth but manager Terry Collins opted to pinch-hit Michael Cuddyer for him, who proceeded to strike out.
It was clear the 24-year-old Matz was fired up for this game. He showed a ton of fire when he allowed the big-hit to Turner. The even-keeled Matz knew very well that he had virtually zero wiggle room against Kershaw.
He did strike out four batters, but he allowed eight base runners in five innings, so it was not his best performance.
The series is now tied at 2-2 and Game 5 will be played in Los Angeles on Thursday at 8 PM. If the Mets win, they will advance to play the Chicago Cubs in the NLCS. Matz did not face them during the regular season. He would get the Game 4 start in that series as well.
