HARVEY SAVES BEST FOR LAST
Harvey ‘ready to go’ after solid final exhibition start
JUPITER, Fla. — Matt Harvey’s likely final start of the Grapefruit League season was clearly his best.
The next time the Mets righthander expects to receive the ball in a competitive setting, the Citi Field lights will be shining and the final score will count. So his performance against a full Cardinals lineup on Tuesday at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium could be taken as the cap to an overall respectable exhibition season for Harvey, considering how 2017 concluded for him.
“You could say I am ready to go,” Harvey said after surrendering one run on five hits and two walks over 5 ¹/3 innings with five strikeouts.
Harvey was allowed to return for the sixth inning and reach 90 pitches after escaping trouble in the fifth. He will likely throw a simulated game Sunday consisting of 40-50 pitches before starting Game 4 of the regular season against the Phillies.
Though the Mets haven’t officially announced a rotation beyond the first two games — Noah Syndergaard and Jacob deGrom will receive those starts in succession — Harvey admitted the fact he was allowed to face the Cardinals on Tuesday is a strong indicator he won’t pitch in the opening series of the season. Those three games are also against the Cardinals.
“Wherever they want me to throw, I am ready to go, as we all are, and we are looking forward to a successful season,” Harvey said.
Harvey, who missed 2 ¹/2 months last season with a stress injury to his right scap- ula, pitched to a 4.50 ERA in five Grapefruit League starts this spring. This after returning to the Mets’ rotation last September and pitching to an 11.28 ERA in his final six appearances of the season. Harvey missed the second half of 2016 after undergoing surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome.
“He is where he needs to be,” manager Mickey Callaway said. “He is throwing the ball over the plate, a great athletic delivery and he knows his stuff is good.”
Harvey’s fastball touched 95 mph several times on Tuesday, including his final pitch of the fifth inning, which struck out Tommy Pham. After retiring Matt Carpenter to begin the sixth on a humid afternoon, Harvey — wearing a big smile — was removed by Callaway.
“The big smiles today were I was a little gassed after the 90degree weather, a little sweaty, so Mickey took me out at the right time,” Harvey said. “That is what the smiles were about.”
Harvey allowed two base runners in the fourth, but escaped with a double play. Paul DeJong homered leading off the ensuing inning, before Harvey walked Kolten Wong but rectified the matter with a pickoff.
After watching Harvey pitch for a month, the new manager said he is impressed with the pitcher’s grasp of his secondary stuff.
“I didn’t know a ton about his offspeed pitches before I came here,” Callaway said. “And those are showing above average for me right now, especially when he is throwing his fastball where he wants to.”
With Jason Vargas sidelined following surgery to remove the hamate bone in his right (non-pitching) hand, Harvey said it would be a treat to belong to a rotation that also includes Syndergaard, deGrom, Steven Matz and Zack Wheeler, if that is what Mets brass decides. That heralded unit has yet to pitch in the same rotation during the regular season.
But the Mets also haven’t ruled out the possibility Vargas will return to take his first turn in the rotation.
“The main goal is to win games and it doesn’t matter what five we have,” Harvey said. “I think we are all amped up and ready to go, and the biggest thing is all five of us are finally healthy at the same time, and whatever they decide to do and whoever they decide to throw out there, we are all healthy and ready to go. We are all pulling for each other and it’s going to be a fun year.”