Banged up but showing
The win of the year? With all the Mets had to overcome on this night, it had that type of feel at Citi Field.
Or at least the improbable win of the year, considering the Mets shook off an alarming start by Matt Harvey, an early 4-1 deficit, and still another significant injury, this one to Neil Walker . . . only to bludgeon Cubs’ pitching for nine runs.
Yes, the roadblocks continue to pop up every time this team finally can see some clear path ahead, and yet suddenly the Mets are finding ways around them.
With Wednesday’s 9-4 victory they’ve won five out of their last six, providing momentum heading into a four-game series at home with the slumping Nationals.
There is a still a huge mountain for these Mets to climb just to get into contention, so it’s not as if they’ve changed the overall outlook in any substantial way, but at the moment they’re showing the type of fight that fueled that late-season comeback last season when it appeared all hope was lost.
Yet you have to wonder: how much can they overcome?
Harvey could well be headed for the disabled list with what Collins called a “fatigued” arm, after he had trouble breaking 90 mph against the Cubs, and indeed gave up a monster home run to Kyle Schwarber on an 89mph fastball in the fourth inning.
“When I saw 89 (on the scoreboard),’’ said Collins, “I asked Dan (Warthen), ‘was that a fastball or a slider?’ He said he thought it was a slider. I said, ‘well, we need to check.’”
When he got the answer, Collins decided Harvey was done after four innings. Harvey wasn’t about to argue, either. He’d turned to check the scoreboard a couple of times, shocked to see the radar gun had registered 86 or 87 mph on his fastball.
“I hadn’t thrown 86-87 since my freshman year in high school,’’ he said. “It’s pretty frustrating.”
Harvey said he had no pain, only the discomfort he has dealt with all season as the fallout from surgery for thoracic outlet surgery.
But he hadn’t experienced this type of fatigue until now.
“This is pretty low for me, physically,’’ he said.
The Mets are sending him to be checked out by a doctor on Thursday, and even if there is nothing wrong you’d have to think they’ll give him some time off to re-charge.
It wouldn’t be a huge loss, the way Harvey has pitched this season, and the Mets can absorb it with last week’s return of both Steven Matz and Seth Lugo, but almost certainly it would force them to abandon their plan for a six-man rotation.
Meanwhile, though T.J. Rivera can step in for Walker, who appeared to suffer a major hamstring pull, that’s another injury that cuts further into their depth.
To that, of course, Collins might say: “So what’s new?”
He’s been adjusting on the fly all season, and talk about a patchwork lineup: on