Mets' April gets worse as Syndergaard has a 'tired arm,' scratched from start

The Mets' ace will miss his scheduled Thursday start thanks to injury

Mets ace Noah Syndergaard was slated to start in day action Thursday against the Braves. Instead, it'll be Matt Harvey, as Syndergaard is dealing with a "tired arm" right now, according to Mets beat writer Anthony DiComo of MLB.com. 

While there's never a good time to lose a player the caliber of Syndergaard, the timing here is dreadful. The Mets have lost nine of their last 10 to fall to 8-12 on the season after a 7-3 start had them in first place. 

Things couldn't get much worse. A good portion of the team was banged up in the previous two weeks while the offense has struggled pretty mightily even when relatively healthy. The Mets enter Thursday ranking last in the NL in average and on-base percentage while sitting 13th in slugging. They are 10th in runs scored, thanks to some timely hitting from the few offensive performers who have been good (Yoenis Cespedes, Jay Bruce, Michael Conforto). Lucas Duda, David Wright and Wilmer Flores are on the DL. 

Pitching-wise, the Mets were without Jeurys Familia to start the season due to his domestic violence suspension while Steven Matz and Seth Lugo have been on the DL all season. 

Syndergaard would arguably be the biggest loss of all (either him or Cespedes). The 24-year-old right-hander finished eighth in Cy Young voting last season. So far this year, he has 1.73 ERA, 0.89 WHIP and 30 strikeouts against zero walks in 26 innings. His stuff is as dominant as anyone's in baseball. 

There's no word yet as to how long Syndergaard will be out. It could be just the one start. When it comes to the Mets this April, though, it's hard to be optimistic.