Ex-ace flashes some old glory
PITTSBURGH — This was no vintage 2013 or 2015 Matt Harvey, the guy who stared down big moments and possessed the confidence of a thousand hedge-fund managers. It wouldn’t be surprising if we never saw that guy again.
No matter. At PNC Park on Sunday night, this looked like a Matt Harvey the Mets could get behind. A Matt Harvey who believed in himself. The Harvey reconstruction project, an important endeavor independent of whether these Mets can revive their campaign, took its first bona fide step forward in quite a while.
“We’ve been talking about it: He doesn’t have to throw 97 [mph] to get people out,” Terry Collins said after Harvey pitched his team to a 7-2 victory over the Pirates. “Tonight he showed that.”
By winning the rubber game and capturing the series, the Mets ended a ridiculous trend of five straight series-finale losses, each of them emotionally devastating. After falling behind on a Gregory Polanco solo homer in the second inning, Harvey saw his lineup roar back with several big hits with runners in scoring position, as five different players picked up at least one RBI on a night Collins chose to rest his best active hitter, Michael Conforto.
Harvey, who contributed a single and a run scored to the team’s offensive effort, made it through six innings, his longest outing in six starts, and allowed just the one run, tying his season low. He scattered six hits, walked two and struck out four, and to point out that he won his second straight start only clouds the matter. For whereas he just barely survived his prior game, going the minimum five innings against the awful Padres, the right-hander picked up most of his batted-ball outs on soft contact against the Bucs — who as the 12th-best offense in the National League are no great shakes, yet better than the Padres. He also exhibited grace under pressure when he needed it most.
“Obviously, it’s just taken a little bit of time,” said Harvey, who underwent surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome in his right shoulder last July. “It’s been frus- trating for me. But a lot of the work has been paying off, and really, it’s a huge, huge positive for me being able to execute those pitches tonight.”
The fastball averaged 94.8 mph (thanks, Brooks Baseball), a tick behind his heyday, yet he complemented it with a plus curveball and slider, and that led to far better poise in tight spots. He escaped a second-and-third, oneout jam in the fourth inning by striking out Francisco Cervelli and Jordy Mercer on fastballs, then skated through a firstand-second, two-out spot in the fifth by getting Polanco on a slider, the same type of pitch (only far better executed) on which the Pirates’ cleanup hitter went deep earlier.
“I knew I had some tough hitters in there and really had to bear down,” Harvey said. “Things were going pretty smoothly mechanically tonight, and I was able to make pitches when I needed to.”
The phrase “one step at a time” applies to no one more on this Mets team than Harvey, given his personal indiscretions, as well as the fact his ERA remains a gaudy 4.95. It goes tenfold for the Mets as a whole, who departed the Steel City with an underwhelming 21-27 record. They need to capitalize on a current oasis in the schedule — a homestand with the Brewers (four games) and the Pirates (three), then a road swing through Texas (two) and Atlanta (four) — to climb back up around . 500 before they face the Cubs, Nationals and Dodgers in succession June 12-22. With the possible returns of the injured Steven Matz and Seth Lugo, both of whom pitched well in minor league rehabilitation starts, that possibility becomes less remote.
If it doesn’t happen despite steady improvement by Harvey, then he could make himself an intriguing trade chip come July or just position himself for a stellar walk year with the Mets in 2018.
It’s in everyone’s best interests for Harvey to create a new vintage — if lacking the potency of the prior two odd-numbered seasons, then one with reliability and self-assuredness. The Mets would settle for that, gladly.