Matt Harvey was hit pretty hard on Tuesday to say the least. In 5.1 innings he allowed six earned runs on eight hits and three walks while striking out two and earning the loss. It was his second straight start in which he gave up six runs and, despite all that, he focused on the positives after the game.
“Today was the best I’ve felt in a long time,” Harvey said to reporters after the game. “I could throw the ball the way I wanted to and I felt like it was coming out better than it has in a couple years.”
Well, Matt, you could throw it how you want, but another important aspect of pitching is throwing it where you want.
Commanding your pitches has two parts and you’ve got one down. The first part is to be able to make the ball move how you want which, according to what you said, you were happy with. The other part of command is being able to hit the glove. As evidenced by your three walks and eight hits, you were not hitting the target when it was on the corner.
Harvey was asked if this was an encouraging night despite the result.
“Yeah I mean obviously we win last night and we get a two run lead in the first and I want to go out there and do everything I can to keep them off the board regardless of mechanics and what not,” Harvey said.
“My job is to get people out and I think for me it’s definitely a positive in the way that it was coming out and the velocity was there pretty much the whole time and I felt like I was able to repeat things the right way and just definitely fine-tuning that and working towards next weekend.”
So far in 2017, Harvey has all but met expectations as he’s gone 2-2 with a 5.14 ERA. As I mentioned earlier, this was his second consecutive game in which he allowed six runs.
Whatever mechanical issues he has, they need to be worked out and worked out fast. Yes, last night was another rough loss, but there were definitely some positives to take away from it.
