New York Mets: Five great pitching performances in home opener through the years

NEW YORK, NY – SEPTEMBER 25: Citi Field (Photo by Rich Schultz/Getty Images)

Looking back at the five best home opening day pitching performances for the New York Mets.

Opening day is finally just one day away. At 1:10 Thursday afternoon, Noah Syndergaard takes the mound against the St. Louis Cardinals to open the New York Mets 2018 campaign. Syndergaard is one of the group that is essential to Mets success in the upcoming season. When he went down last year, New York went down with him. If the pitching staff stays healthy they can have a big year, and it starts with Noah Syndergaard.

As bad as the Mets have been over the years, and fans know they have had their “lean” years to say the least, they have often fared well on opening day. Heading into Thursday’s action, the Mets record in home openers is 35-21. Even in some of the leanest years they were good on day one. From 1971-1978 the Mets won each of their home openers.

Being that the Mets have always been built on pitching and defense, it seemed like a good time to look back at pitching performances on opening day. Specifically we are looking at the five best pitching performances in the home opener in team history. Some may not be complete games as we take into account the era of baseball. All five performances were stellar.

They were close and hard to judge, so here they are in chronological order: