Noah Syndergaard scratched from start due to 'tired arm'

There could be some bad news coming for the New York Mets, and for anyone who loves powerful, dominant pitching. Noah Syndergaard, the Mets’ long-haired towheaded ace, is dealing with a possible injury to his pitching arm. He’s been scratched from his scheduled Thursday start against the Atlanta Braves due to a “tired arm.”

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As of now, all anyone knows (including Syndergaard himself) is that he’s been experiencing some discomfort in his right biceps. The exact diagnosis is unknown, though Mets manager Terry Collins suggested it might be biceps tendinitis.

Syndergaard was actually supposed to start on Wednesday against the Braves, but his start was pushed back to Thursday to keep the Mets’ rotation in turn, and to set up their weekend series against the Washington Nationals. There is a tentative date for Syndergaard to pitch again, but that’s far from definite.

The MRI will obviously tell us more about what’s happening with Syndergaard’s arm, but at the moment the Mets are hoping that he’ll miss only one start. When he spoke with the media, Syndergaard said that sees it as a minor issue, but wants to be cautious.

Though the season is still young, Syndergaard has been living up to the high expectations that have been set for him. He has a 1.73 ERA and 30 strikeouts through four starts. His “worst” start of the year came on April 20 against the Philadelphia Phillies, when he gave up three runs in seven innings but struck out ten. That’s not bad by any measure, and most pitchers would take that outing any day of the week and twice on Sundays. But most pitchers aren’t Noah Syndergaard.

The Mets need Syndergaard to be okay, as they’ve been in a free fall lately. They’re 1-9 over their last ten games, and their players keep getting injured. Infielder Wilmer Flores and first baseman Lucas Duda both landed on the disabled list recently, and catcher Travis d’Arnaud and left fielder Yoenis Cespedes have been dealing with nagging injuries. So until the results of that MRI come back, the Mets and baseball fans everywhere will be holding their collective breath.

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Liz Roscher is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at lizroscher@yahoo.com or follow her on twitter! Follow @lizroscher