A DOOR MATT
ATLANTA — Matt Harvey was allowed to start on his scheduled night for a change, but still got Tomahawk Chopped into bits and pieces.
Right now, there’s Jacob deGrom and a steaming pile of blah to complete this Mets rotation. Can anybody rise from the mediocrity?
On Tuesday night, Harvey was yanked at 96 pitches with one out in the sixth inning for the latest uninspiring performance by a Mets starter. But at least he’s taking the ball every fifth day, which is more than could be said of Noah Syndergaard, Steven Matz and Seth Lugo. And there is also this:
“Today was the best I have felt in a long time,” Harvey said after the Mets lost 9-7 to the Braves at SunTrust Park and returned to last place in the NL East. “I could throw the ball the way I wanted to, and it felt like it was coming out better than it has in a couple of years.”
Harvey had been moved up a day in his previous two starts, because of a deGrom stiff neck and Syndergaard biceps discomfort, respectively. Though he performed admirably in the first instance, against the Nationals, Harvey bombed facing the Braves on Thursday, later indicating he was stiff from working out the previous day.
This time Harvey (2-2, 5.14 ERA) was hammered for six earned runs on eight hits and three walks over 5 ¹/3 innings.
“The ball came out of his hand pretty good, but it’s command,” manager Terry Collins said. “When this guy is on, what made him so good was great stuff and great command, and right now the stuff is coming back, but the command is not there.”
It was a third straight rough performance from a Mets starting pitcher, including Sunday when Syndergaard had a brutal first inning in Washington before leaving with a partially torn lat muscle that will keep him sidelined for an extended period. Robert Gsellman, who has struggled to start the season, followed on Monday by surrendering five runs over five-plus innings in the Mets’ victory over the Braves. Also, the Mets are still waiting for Zack Wheeler to emerge from a lethargic return after missing two seasons rehabbing from Tommy John surgery.
Harvey is returning from surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome that cost him the second half of last season.
“You’re talking about a guy who did not pitch very much last year,” Collins said. “And he’s coming back from a surgery not a lot of guys have come back to really be 100 percent again. Especially when you have lost feeling in your fingers, you have
got to regain the release point and the feel of the seams.”
The Mets (11-15) used Jay Bruce’s second homer of the night, a grand slam with two outs in the ninth, to get close before Jim Johnson entered to record the final out.
R.A. Dickey (3-2) beat his former team for the second time in less than a week, holding the Mets to three earned runs on four hits with four walks over six innings. The Mets will get another reunion Wednesday, when Bartolo Colon is scheduled to pitch for the Braves.
Harvey unraveled in the fourth inning, allowing three runs to put the Mets in a 6-3 hole. The big hit was Ender Inciarte’s two-run single after Dickey’s high chopper produced an RBI ground out.
It was a wild inning for Harvey, who walked Dansby Swanson to load the bases after Kurt Suzuki was hit in the abdomen by a pitch. Harvey and Collins contended Suzuki had swung at the pitch — as replays indicated — but the play was not reviewable.
Freddie Freeman hammered Harvey’s full-count slider for a two-run homer in the first that had tied it 2-2.
“We win [Monday] night and we get a two-run lead in the first and I want to go out there and keep them off the board,” Harvey said. “Regardless of mechanics, my job is to get people out, but for me it’s definitely the positive was the way it was coming out and the velocity was there pretty much the whole time.”