On a day the Mets were coming off their first sobering loss of the season, the Mets needed a pick me up, especially in the Subway Series at Yankee Stadium.
They got just that. But, it wasn’t all Matt Harvey’s doing.
Sure, Harvey was utterly brilliant, but this is a game of eight other players on the field too. They have to make the plays behind him and provide him run support for him to register victories.
And on Saturday, they did just that.
But, Harvey credited one hero in particular for his performance. It was his battery mate, Kevin Plawecki who earned the praise of Gotham’s Dark Knight on a cool, sunny day at Yankee Stadium.
“I think he’s obviously the star of the game with the home run and the RBIs that he had,” Harvey explained about Plawecki. “As far as catching, he did an absolutely tremendous job.”
In the fourth inning with two outs and Wilmer Flores aboard, Plawecki drove a line drive over the left field wall to cap a four-run explosion for the Mets, break the game open and give Harvey all the breathing room he would need, and then some.
It was Plawecki’s first career home run, first career runs batted in.
“It was great, especially given the situation we were in,” Plawecki said after the game. “It was a good time to put a few runs on the board and give us a little cushion. I was just happy to put a good swing on it.”
Plawecki is now 4-for-14 with a home run and three RBI in his first four games in the big leagues.
As for his work behind the plate, Harvey praised the game Plawecki called, noting the two became in sync virtually immediately.
“It was awesome,” Harvey said. “As the game went on, we had a couple innings there where we were right on the same page. I let him know that he did a great job.”
In listening to Mets people after Travis d’Arnaud broke his hand, there wasn’t a single sound of concern they’d miss a beat with Plawecki here, and that’s held true over his first week in the big leagues. He’s had some growing pains behind the plate to a degree in that he has to polish some his pitch calling in certain situations. But that just comes with experience and adjusting to this level of play, and that’s perfectly fine. They’re winning, and that takes some of the pressure off the situation which surrounds him. But the pitching staff has been great under Plawecki’s watch, and his defense behind the plate has been quite impressive in a small sample – the finer details will work themselves out as he logs more innings behind the plate.
Plawecki’s performance this week just goes to show he belongs here and probably does not deserve to go back to Triple-A when d’Arnaud is activated. There’s still a month more or less before the club has to make a move, so for now, the Mets should just hope they can continue to reap the rewards of having such rare and tremendous catching depth at the upper levels of their organization.
Just Mets 