Blond locks dangling down to his shoulders, blue eyes burning beneath his cap, he looks like a character plucked from a Norse myth and clothed with a New York Mets uniform. His fans call him “Thor,” and Noah Syndergaard lives his gimmick. He is not a superhero. He merely resembles one when he steps between the lines of a baseball diamond.
In a 4-3 defeat of the Dodgers on Wednesday night, Syndergaard stilled his hosts with his arm and stunned them with his bat. He drove in four runs on a pair of home runs, becoming the first pitcher in nearly a decade to go deep twice in one night.