Harvey fill-in’s wild ride to Citi
Welcome to Adam Wilk’s Itinerary from Hell.
Leave Las Vegas with the Triple-A 51s at 7 a.m. Saturday. Fly to Denver. Connect to Albuquerque. Find hotel room not ready. Mingle in lobby. Check into room. Go to field and play catch. Learn you are needed in New York. Zip back to hotel, shower, fly to Los Angeles. Leave LAX at midnight for New York and arrive at 8:30 a.m. Sunday. Go straight to Citi Field. Start 1:10 p.m. game and face Giancarlo Stanton in the first inning.
And suffer the loss in a 7-0 Mets defeat to the Marlins when the Mets supply one single’s worth of offensive support.
“It is tough. Obviously, didn’t get a whole l ot of sleep. Tried to sleep wherever I could, on the plane or si tt i ng in the airport,” said Wilk, the 29-year-old lefty, who had previous MLB stints with the Tigers and Angels. “But I don’t want to make any excuses. I should have made better pitches. I’ve got to get out there and make better pitches and get guys out.”
Wilk was the f ill-in for Matt Harvey, whose threeday suspension for violating team rules was announced by the team before the game. Wilk said when he was summoned Saturday, he had no idea what was up, other than he would pitch if Harvey could not. Wilk did not learn he was starting until shortly before taking off on the redeye out of Los Angeles.
“I knew I was starting in his spot. What I was told was that if he doesn’t pitch, I’m going to start,” Wilk said. “I didn’t know if he was hurt or if he was this or that or what ended up being he broke a team rule so they suspended him. I didn’t know anything about that until this morning so I prepared myself the best I could to start.”
It was his first start since April 25, 2012.
“They have a very good lineup ,” manager Terry Collins said of the Marlins. “Plus, he flew all night, late notice yesterday. Pretty tough situation to put him in but it’s what we had to do.”
Wilk pitched 3 ²/₃ innings and allowed six runs, f ive earned, and eight hits — three of them homers, two by Stanton, who mashed a couple breaking balls.
“I wouldn’t necessarily say I felt off. I put everything I could into it,” Wilk said. “Light on sleep but I think the pitches were doing all right. I threw the ball mostly down the strike zone. They swung the bat well.”