Power surge against Harvey yields split
Springer, Bregman homer to take early edge; Miley, pen protect lead
ANAHEIM, Calif. — The Dark Knight is in a dark place.
Not long ago, Matt Harvey captivated New York while playing for the Mets. The starter struck fear in opponents with imposing fastball velocity and various ways to work through the most potent of batting orders. His superhero nickname was apt.
Now it is the most misleading of personas, a dated pseudonym for this sputtering pitcher. The Astros hammered Harvey for seven hits and six runs during six innings Thursday night, coasting to a 6-2 win.
On the eighth game of a peculiar road trip, one overrun with openers and unwritten rule implementation, the Astros secured a 4-4 mark. In both series, they lost the first two games in revolting fashion before saving face with two victories.
“A series split (in) both of these series isn’t necessarily what we wanted,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “But we’ll take it given how the games played out.”
Oakland’s loss in Minnesota afforded the Astros a game in the division. They lead the A’s by 5½ games. After Tuesday’s loss to the Angels, their lead was whittled to four.
“The first two games we played absolutely horrible,” Alex Bregman said. “The Stros are back. The
boys are back.”
Bregman and George Springer smashed home runs off Harvey. Yordan Alvarez annihilated a tworun double down the first-base line during the first inning to begin the scoring, the first of countless crushed baseballs against the once-riveting righthander.
The Astros put eight balls in play harder than 100 mph against him and scored four two-out runs. Harvey walked five while striking out one. All told, the damage inflated his ERA to 7.09.
“We hit him hard,” Hinch said. “We got pitches to hit. We had good at-bats in that first inning. A couple walks, a big double by Alvarez and we were off and going.”
Three stellar seasons as a Met landed Harvey the spotlight. He faltered beneath it. Tommy John surgery stalled his ascent. A propensity to party precipitated his downfall. The Mets asked him to accept a minor league assignment last season.
He refused and was released. A stopover in Cincinnati preceded his arrival in Anaheim, where the organization hoped he would lend stability to an unreliable rotation. He has failed. In 38⅓ innings at Angel Stadium, he’s allowed 38 runs.
Velocity on Harvey’s fastball has diminished. His strikeout totals tapered off. Harvey had not finished six innings since April 28. He did against the Astros on Thursday, perhaps the only solace he can take from another abysmal outing. Alvarez’s tworun double in the first gave Astros starter Wade Miley a lead before he threw a pitch.
Springer’s solo home run to start the third exited his bat at 98.1 mph. It was the leadoff man’s 22nd home run of the season, during his 300th plate appearance. He equaled his total from the 2018 campaign, one in which he took 620 plate appearances.
Bregman destroyed a 2-0 fastball during the fifth, sending a solo shot above the Angels’ bullpen that completed their tattooing of Harvey.
“That was the first time I’ve felt like myself in a long time,” said Bregman, who reached base four times and finished with two hits.
Miley did not yield a hit until the fifth inning. Brian Goodwin golfed a two-strike changeup off the right-field wall for a two-out double, removing any opportunity for history. Before Goodwin, no
Angel had touched scoring position against Miley.
“You get run support like that, you can kind of try to get into the game and get into a rhythm with all of your pitches,” Miley said. “I was able to do that, for the most part. I was a little bit wilder than I’d liked. I wasn’t commanding it. Not to say I was all over the place, I was just missing small.”
The southpaw walked batters in each of his first two innings but stranded them at first base. He tallied seven groundouts through the first four innings, pairing his cutter with a curveball and changeup.
That he could not complete six innings was not entirely his fault. Third baseman Yuli Gurriel tossed away Mike Trout’s potential double-play ball in the sixth, allowing David Fletcher to flee to third. He scored on Justin Upton’s sacrifice fly for an unearned run.
Andrelton Simmons followed with a single, sending Hinch from the dugout. He yanked Miley for fellow Louisianan Will Harris. Albert Pujols loomed. The future Hall of Famer flared a two-strike curveball into the left-center field gap, paring the lead to four.
Kole Calhoun came up. Harris filled the count. A cutter darted down in the strike zone on his seventh pitch. Calhoun chopped it to first baseman Tyler White, who turned a 3-6-1 double play, putting an end to the only threat the Astros encountered en route to a victory Harvey handed them in the first three innings.
“You give this pitching staff a five-, six-run lead, you feel really good about it,” Hinch said. “It was nice to get ahead.”