Phillies' Noah Syndergaard once again won't face Mets

Former New York Mets flame-throwing right-hander Noah Syndergaard has either intentionally or coincidentally done well to avoid facing his former club this season while with the Los Angeles Angels and, most recently, the Philadelphia Phillies. 

That trend will continue when the Phillies welcome the Mets to town for a series this weekend. 

Per Scott Lauber of The Philadelphia Inquirer, Syndergaard will get an extra day of rest and, thus, won't pitch against the Mets on Sunday as previously planned. Instead, the 29-year-old will prepare to take the bump for Monday's home game versus the lowly Cincinnati Reds. 

Kyle Gibson is on track to start for Philadelphia against New York on Sunday. 

Syndergaard was with the big-league Mets from 2015 through last fall until he signed a one-year, $21 million deal with the Angels in November. As noted by Danny Abriano of SNY, Syndergaard was given extra rest when the Angels and Mets played against each other in June, and his spot in the rotation didn't come up during last weekend's Phillies-Mets series after he joined Philadelphia via a pre-deadline trade. 

Syndergaard missed all of the 2020 season and most of the subsequent campaign due to having Tommy John surgery in March 2020. He explained last week that recovering from that setback impacted his decision to leave the Mets for the Angels. 

"Part of the reason why I made the move to the Angels, the West Coast, is because that energy that can make New York so great and positive can also bite you in the butt a little bit," Syndergaard told reporters last Friday. "Especially with what I'm going through right now, little dip in velocity, still trying to rely on location, mixing things up. I feel like if I was doing that while playing here, everything would just be highlighted. That was kinda a big fear of mine. So that's probably a reason I went over to the West Coast."

In total, Syndergaard has gone 7-8 with a 3.95 ERA this season.