It was a rough night for the Philadelphia home teams Monday. While Alex Ovechkin was firing laser beams past Steve Mason in Game 3 of a Stanley Cup Playoff matchup at Wells Fargo Center, New York Mets pitcher Noah Syndergaard was showing off his cannon across the street at Citizens Bank Park against the Philadelphia Phillies.

You can tend to get a good feel for how settled in a pitcher is in the first two innings of a game. Needless to say, Syndergaard was locked in from the jump. He came out firing against the Phillies, hitting triple digits on the radar gun 12 times in the first two innings:

And he was just getting warmed up. Syndergaard continued to throw in the high 90s the seventh inning, helping the Mets pick up a 5-2 victory in the first of a three-game series in Philadelphia. He struck out eight batters in the win and dropped his early-season ERA down to 0.90.

With velocity like Syndergaard had going, it made switching to the changeup all the more difficult for the Phillies’ batters to adjust. On 13 changeups thrown by Syndergaard, eight were for strikes, with three being swung on and missed, according to Brooks Baseball.

Syndergaard also picked up his strike percentage each inning through four innings; he only needed nine pitches to get through the third inning and eight to work through the fourth. Sure, the Phillies’ offense will be a struggle fest more often than not this season, but Syndergaard was still deserving of some praise for his masterpiece Monday night.

The concern, if you’re a Mets fan, is just how often can the pitcher throw at that level? Will it continue on another potential playoff run or will there be any concern later in the season? We know professional athletes are the true elite physical specimen (well, for the most part), but the human arm just is not supposed to be slinging 100+ mph fastballs and 94 mph sliders mixed in over 100 pitches every five days. Right?

But don’t forget about the catcher too, because that kind of pitching can take a toll on the man behind the plate too, as it did Monday night. To get a better understanding of just how hard Syndergaard was pitching, take a look at the imprint one of his pitches left on catcher Kevin Plawecki that was blocked by the catcher’s chest. Also keep in mind the gear catchers wear to protect their chests.

Yikes.

[Hardball Talk]

About Kevin McGuire

Contributor to Athlon Sports and The Comeback. Previously contributed to NBCSports.com. Host of the Locked On Nittany Lions Podcast. FWAA member and Philadelphia-area resident.