Just Mets

The Mets defeated the Nationals by the score of 6-3 today at Nationals Park in Washington. Here are some of my takeaways from Thursday’s rubber game win…

#HarveyDay was a tremendous success.

The funny thing is Harvey wasn’t at his best, at least early on. But what’s considered an off-day for Harvey is a fantastic day for most other pitchers, and he was exactly that in his return to the mound.

In other words, it was typical Harvey with dominant command, dazzling stuff, and smiles for everyone who was watching him make his long awaited return.

He baffled the Nationals with a tailing fastball in and a deadly curveball diving down, which really helped him get through this outing. It’s a pitch he claimed to refine during the rehab process – there’s no question he has another deadly weapon in his arsenal now, which can help on days like today when he struggles to get a feel early on.

Final line: 6 IP, 4 H, 1 BB, 9 K, 91 pitches, 63 strikes.

Ian Desmond’s defense won this series for the Mets.

It was a recurring theme throughout the week in Washingtonas the little things were the clear differences in each of the three games. On Monday, it was Desmond dropping a ball which set the stage for a Lucas Duda two-run single to win it, and today it was Desmond again who failed to turn a routine double play off the bat of David Wright in the their dinning, completely changing the tone of the frame and setting the stage for a four-run outburst.

Speaking of David Wright…

He has yet to pull a ball for a base hit this year. He has two hits the other way and one bloop hit to center field. It’s been a recurring theme for Wright going back to Spring Training in which he’s making a conscious effort to go the other way, as he did in the earlier days of his career. The approach today helped deliver a big two-run single in the sixth inning, which helped pad Matt Harvey’s first win of the season.

Travis d’Arnaud is red hot at the plate.

D’Arnaud has put together any early concerns about his bat. He really struggled in Spring Training, but it just goes to show stuff that goes on in the Grapefruit League means absolutely nothing. Two more hits today, 5 in the three games to go along with four RBI in the series. He’s showing those quick hands he had when he returned from the minors last year, making solid contact and spraying the ball all over the field. Very exciting, and very relieving at that.

Other notes from Thursday: 

Harvey has not allowed a home run in his last 60 1/3 innings, the longest active streak among big league starters.

Today marked the 12th time in 37 career starts Harvey has struck out nine or more batters.

Six of the ten runs the Mets scored in this series were unearned.

The Mets were 4-for-10 with runners in scoring position on Thursday, and 7-for-20 in those situation in this series.

It’s the Mets first series win vs. Washington since August 30-September 1, 2013.