Lost in yet another lifeless loss for the Mets was the brilliance of Matt Harvey, who allowed just a single run on six hits with a walk and five strikeouts against the Braves on Sunday.
Harvey threw 73 of his 115 pitches for strikeouts, inducing eight groundouts and five flyouts.
“I’m pretty happy with the fact I was able to go into the seventh inning, after close to 50 pitches through two innings,” Harvey explained after the game. “I think it was something we needed. I know our bullpen was pretty tired. I had to find the zone a little bit more and start attacking a little bit better and I was able to do that.”
Unfortunately, due to the fact he got no run support, he fell to 7-5 on the year while lowering his ERA to 3.18.
The only trouble he really ran into was in the seventh inning, having thrown 97 pitches through six innings. He allowed a double to Ryan Lavarnway and then Pedro Ciriaco followed with a run scoring single which stood up for the Braves.
“I thought I made a pretty good pitch — it was low and in,” Harvey said of the pitch to Ciriaco. “I’m kicking myself for getting behind in that situation, but other than that that is part of baseball.”
While the offense has struggled, Harvey took responsibility for letting the team down on Sunday.
“I’m kicking myself for those two batters in the seventh,” he explained.
He doesn’t have anything to apologize for after Sunday’s performance. He was brilliant, and brilliant performances should be rewarded with at least the minimum number of runs it takes to secure a win. Unfortunately for Harvey and the rest of the Mets pitching staff, they have to go nine innings and strike out 27 to ensure a win, as they cannot hit or field consistently at the moment.
He had his slider going on Sunday afternoon. At times – especially early – he had trouble commanding it, but he discovered the command of perhaps his most devastating pitch after the third inning, and Atlanta really did nothing with it. In fact, they didn’t put a single slider in play against Harvey all afternoon. It was the perfect complement to his fastball which he was spotting beautifully at the knees and on both corners – he threw 47 of the 76 fastballs he threw for strikes.
It’s just a shame the Mets wasted such a performance from Harvey on Sunday. He did all he could to give the club an opportunity. He tired out at the end, which really isn’t surprising given his historic struggles after 100 pitches combined with the heat and humidity he dealt with at Turner Field.
Still, Harvey was probably the best pitcher available to Terry Collins in that situation, and it was the right call to give him an opportunity to get through seven innings.
Harvey is he’s going to go through the ebbs and flows everyone who recovers from Tommy John Surgery deals with. He’s still a human being despite the immense expectations which surround him every five days, but it’s just the nature of the beast. As good as he’s been in his last two starts, he could very well hit another wall and have to readjust again. But that’s survival at this level anyway – this is more of an ongoing process than the average adjustment, but it’s an adjustment none the less.
All things considered, he has probably been a cut or two better than the average pitcher who has to deal with this, partially because he had extended rest but also because he’s so incredibly talented, that even 80-90 percent of his peak is better than most other pitchers in this league.
Just imagine how good he’s going to be when he’s at 100 percent again.
Harvey has allowed one earned run with a walk and 11 strikeouts in 13 2/3 innings, holding the opposition to a .196 opposing average in his last two starts. He has allowed three earned runs or less in ten of his 14 starts in 2015
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2 responses to “Matt Harvey’s brilliance in Atlanta was lost in Sunday’s mess…”
Harvey’s performance wasn’t lost on me, his agent or another club out there with their eye on that prize arm! He and deGrom are so outta here first chance they get.
And we will have given they no reason to stay in a Met uniform. Quite the contrary.
Don’t be the last man to turn the lights out at CITI FIELD….shame on the Wilpons for ordering their hired hands to make excuses and rearrange the deck chairs on the titanic to give it a new look- I know Omar Minaya went off track, got impatient and started to pull the trigger on all kinds of outlandish deals to try and get the Mets over the finish line. I’m not advocated that knee jerk reaction to the current problem. The current problem is lack of major league talent- to say the ‘game moves too fast for some of these guys at this level’ if true, is an indictment of the whole Met scouting department. That, and those specific guys should NOT be here til they are ready. They are not fooling anyone, they are losing games, alienating their own pitching staff and annoying me daily. Small potatoes, me, but there are MILLIONS of ‘me’.
Grow up & act like a Major League team.
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I wouldn’t be too worried about what DeGrom and Harvey may do when they become free agents because that is several years off and a lot will happen before then. Unfortunately, the Mets lack talent. Flores is not a major league shortstop despite his hitting. Yes, he has power, but home runs aren’t everything and no one is confusing him as a hitter with Jeter, Tulowitzki, or, for that matter, with Cal Ripken. It’s important to remember that the Red Sox didn’t go on their winning tear in 2004 until AFTER Nomar Garciapara was traded for a much better fielder but lesser hitter. We should also remember that the Mets won the ’69 World Series and “73 NL pennant with a shortstop who hit around .230, Buddy Harrelson and the Orioles won their pennants with Mark Belanger, a player who was challenged by the Mendoza line.
Finally, I had to turn off the game on Fri. after Tejada and Herrera both failed to cover 2b on a steal attempt. In all the years I’ve been watching baseball, I have never seen such ineptitude, not from the 1962 Mets. I was sick to my stomach. Something needs to be done.
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