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#Steven Matz appears primed for his crucial Mets season

#Steven Matz appears primed for his crucial Mets season

July 21, 2020 | 1:10am

The regular season is coming at a good time for Steven Matz. Monday night, he looked ready for the upcoming abbreviated campaign.

“Today was probably the best I’ve felt, as far as all my pitches go,” Matz said in a Zoom interview after allowing two runs — on a Rene Rivera home run — over five innings while throwing 75 pitches. “I felt like I was commanding the ball a lot better today. I feel good. Everything felt crisp.

“I felt I could’ve gone back out there for another two, three innings honestly.”

More is riding on his left shoulder than any of his previous five seasons. After Zack Wheeler left via free agency and Noah Syndergaard underwent Tommy John surgery in the spring, Matz is being counted on along with Marcus Stroman to bolster the rotation behind two-time Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom.

Matz prepared himself well, arriving for spring training 2.0 in good shape after spending the time between spring trainings at home in Nashville, Tenn., working out with major leaguers such as James McCann, Logan Forsythe, Adam Duvall, Lance Lynn, Jacob Stallings and teammate Brad Brach. After reaching 30 starts for the second straight season a year ago, going 11-10 with a 4.21 ERA, Matz will embark on a season unlike any other. Instead of fans in the Citi Field stands, there will be cardboard cutouts of them and artificial fan noise. Nobody really knows what to expect once the games count for real on Friday, starting with the Braves.

“Late in the game, when normally you get energy from the crowd buzzing, I think that’s going to be the most interesting thing when you get to a close game, and it’s late in the game, you got big at-bats, you got to be able to make big pitches, just to see that plays out,” he said.

Matz knows when he will be making his first start, though he kept it to himself, as did manager Luis Rojas. Rojas did share what he has liked the most about Matz through camp though. His velocity has been in the mid-90s, and most importantly, he has added to his repertoire. He’s throwing curveballs at different velocities, creating another element of his attack.

“I was really pumped the first day he threw, and we had those [radar] readings behind the plate,” Rojas said. “That velo[city] differential and having the changeup and having that breaking ball also, he put some work in. That was the one thing that has really caught my eye. … We want it to translate into the regular season starting on Friday.”

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