Remember when New York Mets right-hander Noah Syndergaard took issue with the club's travel plans ahead of the regular season?
On Thursday, following a loss in the Mets' home opener to the Washington Nationals, Syndergaard again voiced his displeasure with New York's scheduling -- this time saying he doesn't believe they were in the best situation to win a ballgame due to a suboptimal itinerary:
Noah Syndergaard says that he doesn't think the Mets were in position to win today due to their travel situation.
Adds that he wishes the Mets played tonight or played a day game yesterday: pic.twitter.com/qpUGv82Dbk
— SNY (@SNYtv) April 4, 2019
The Mets completed their three-game series with the Miami Marlins on Wednesday night. Despite a 6 p.m. start in Miami, New York's departure was delayed because some members of the team were selected for a drug test -- one that saw Dominic Smith struggle to … uh, produce:
Adding to the Mets' tight turnaround between last night's game and this morning: Dominic Smith and one other Met were randomly drug tested late Wednesday. Smith didn't really have to pee, so he chugged water while his teammates waited close to an hour for him to do the deed.
— Anthony DiComo (@AnthonyDiComo) April 4, 2019
That hold-up caused the Mets to arrive at Citi Field with less than 12 hours to spare before the 1 p.m. start time -- a start time that, by the way, the Mets had control over, as detailed by Tim Healey of Newsday:
Home teams pick the start times for games. The Marlins didn't do the Mets any favors by moving the game up by only an hour from a normal first pitch, but the Mets still picked an early afternoon start time for their first home game, as most openers in franchise history have been.
Obviously it would've been sweet if the Marlins had been kind to the Mets and allowed Wednesday's game to be played in the afternoon. But the Mets shouldn't have counted on that, and should have instead had the foresight to play Thursday's game at night.
You can understand then why Syndergaard -- who, it should be noted, flew ahead of the team -- is agitated once more with the Mets' travel plans. For whatever reason, they seem to want to make it as difficult for their players as possible to get some rest.
