Dodgers News: Will Smith Has Full Faith in Noah Syndergaard Righting the Ship

Noah Syndergaard has not gotten off to the greatest of starts in his Dodger career. That’s putting it about as nicely as possible.

Through 11 starts, Syndergaard is 1-4 with a 6.54 ERA and 1.39 WHIP. He’s allowed multiple runs in all but one of his starts (excluding the start he left after just one inning), and has allowed five or more runs in four of them. The Dodgers, as a team, have gone 4-7 when he’s started a game.

Syndergaard came to Los Angeles to get his career back on track, seeing what they did with past reclamation projects Tyler Anderson and Andrew Heaney just a year ago. Unfortunately for Syndergaard, though, he just hasn’t able to find that success.

It’s getting difficult to find someone who still believes Syndergaard can get things right, but we know there’s at least one — and it’s his catcher.

Dodgers catcher Will Smith told reporters after Wednesday’s game that he has “no doubt” that Syndergaard will work through these struggles and get back to being, at the very least, a solid pitcher for this team (per Juan Toribio of MLB.com).

“He’s struggling right now. Several guys are struggling,” Smith said. “I know Noah specifically is going to keep working his [behind] off. That’s what he does. No doubt he’ll come back at some point, whether that’s his next start or his start after that. He’s too good of a pitcher not to come back.”

As of now, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts wouldn’t say when Syndergaard’s next start would be. The Dodgers have two days off in the next five days, so they’ll be able to skip his spot in the rotation without doing any harm.

When his next start rolls around, though, it’ll be interesting to see what the Dodgers decide to do.

I personally thought this start against the Nationals would be a perfect opportunity for him to prove that he can still pitch at a somewhat high level, but he failed to do it, blowing a 3-0 lead and allowing seven hits and five earned runs across five innings.

Syndergaard hasn’t been able to get his fastball anywhere near the triple digits he used to throw, and hitters are feasting off of his 93 mph meatballs.

Hopefully Syndergaard is able to figure it out. Maybe a skipped start in the rotation will help. But as of now, Smith is definitely in the minority in terms of people who still believe in Syndergaard righting the ship in Los Angeles. Hopefully he proves the rest of us wrong.

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