MATT GETS RAIN CHECKED
Harvey good again but takes no-decision Suspended game to be continued today
OTHER THAN the rain that was falling at Citi Field, this had the look of a typical Matt Harvey start: Another fine performance by the pitcher, no run support, no Met victory.
The good news is that there was no loss either as the inclement weather caused the game to be suspended with the Mets and Reds tied, 1-1, after six innings on Saturday.
Curtis Granderson had a chance to give Harvey his eighth win but he flied out with the bases loaded on the day’s final at-bat.
Harvey turned in six gutty innings, but all he had to show for it was another no-decision. In 51 career starts, he’s allowed one run or fewer and failed to get a win 14 times.
Harvey, 7-5 with a 3.08 ERA in his return season after Tommy John surgery, has pitched well in three consecutive outings after a stretch of four games that included two of the worst starts of his career.
“I know it was a rough patch there, so I just think staying mentally focused and positive through now is definitely helping,” he said. “Coming back, there are still days I don’t feel as great as I normally would . . . but we’re finding ways to get it done.”
“It’s the feel. I have a whole new ligament in my elbow,” he added. “Whether it’s finding release point or certain pitches, I’m finding it’s a lot tougher than I anticipated.”
Harvey allowed the one run while giving up five hits and two walks with three strikeouts. He was lifted after 90 pitches for a pinch-hitter in the sixth because the Mets had a runner in scoring position and Terry Collins sensed the suspension might be coming. He was right.
Saturday’s game will be resumed at 1:10 p.m. Sunday, with the regularly scheduled contest — Steven Matz’s big-league debut — to be played about 30 minutes afterward. Tickets from Saturday’s game can be exchanged for ones to Sunday’s completion and regularly scheduled game as well as the Steve Miller Band postgame concert that was supposed to be held on Saturday.
Harvey knew that he would be pitching in varying degrees of rainfall when the game started and Collins said, “under those circumstances, he was really good.”
Granderson put the Mets up 1-0 in the third with his fifth home run in seven games and the 250th of his career. But that’s all the struggling Met bats managed against Michael Lorenzen, who went 5.2 innings, and Manny Parra, who entered to get Granderson in the sixth.
The Reds tied the game at 1 in the fifth. Granderson went a long way for Tucker Barnhart’s flare down the right-field line and slid to make the catch, but the ball bounced out of the palm of his glove for a double — “a play I should have made,” Granderson said — and Barnhart scored on a one-out double by Brandon Phillips. But Harvey stranded Phillips, striking out Joey Votto and Todd Frazier to keep it tied.
Of lifting him for the pinch-hitter, Collins said he told Harvey, “Listen, we have to try to score a run here. You pitched great.”
A typical Harvey Day.