The New York Mets defeated the Philadelphia Phillies 2-0 on Tuesday night at Citi Field behind a strong 2018 debut from Matt Harvey.
Pitching
Harvey picked up a no decision on the night, but made a very strong 2018 debut. The right-hander started off the night with a perfect first inning sitting at 91-92 mph with his fastball.
He allowed a leadoff single to Rhys Hoskins in the second, but got out of the inning after striking out a pair.
Ben Lively reached on a Jose Reyes fielding error leading off the third and later advanced to second on a wild pitch. Harvey again got out of the inning unscathed after a pair of pop outs and a Cesar Hernandez strike out.
Harvey was able to work around a leadoff walk in a scoreless fourth inning. The 29-year-old finished his 2018 debut with an easy 1-2-3 fifth inning. He threw 85 pitches over five scoreless innings, while allowing one hit, issuing one walk and striking out five.
AJ Ramos allowed the first two batters to reach on a walk and a bunt single in the sixth. However, he retired the next two batters on a line out right to Todd Frazier and a three pitch Hoskins strikeout before being pulled for Jerry Blevins.
Blevins threw three straight curveballs to Odubel Herrera, and on the third one, got him to pop up and end the threat.
Seth Lugo was lights out in his first appearance of the 2018 season, retiring all six batters he faced, with four via swinging strikeouts.
Despite struggling and putting the tying runs on base, Jeurys Familia secured his second save of the season with a scoreless ninth inning.
Offense
Asdrubal Cabrera and Jay Bruce singled in the bottom of the first, but were stranded at first and second after Todd Frazier popped out.
The Mets threatened again in the third, as Matt Harvey led off the inning with a single and Brandon Nimmo was hit by a pitch. However, the chance fell by the wayside as the Mets again stranded the runners.
New York scored the only two runs of the game in the sixth. Yoenis Cespedes was hit by a pitch leading off the inning and advanced to second on a fielder’s choice thanks to the shift.
TFrazier then gave the Mets a 1-0 lead with an RBI double to left center. Two batters later, Frazier came around to score on a clutch two out, two strike RBI single from Travis d’Arnaud giving the Mets a 2-0 lead.
On Deck
Noah Syndergaard (1-0, 6.00 ERA) will make his second start of the season tomorrow afternoon against Aaron Nola (0-0, 1.69 ERA) and the Phillies at 1:10 p.m. at Citi Field. The game will be exclusively broadcasted on Facebook Live.
