Following the Mets’ agonizing World Series defeat, Terry Collins‘ decision to leave Matt Harvey in the game haunted him for days. However, in an interview that airs tonight on MLB Network, Collins now says that he feels better about it and has moved on.
” I had my bad three days. You’ve got to move on,” Collins says in the show. (Anthony McCarron, NY Daily News.)
Collins explains his decision in depth during the interview, and said that Harvey’s passion was the main reasons behind it.
“I saw the passion in his eyes — ‘I want this game,’ ” Collins says. “That’s why I think he’s great and that’s what’s going to make him great is that he wants to compete and he wants to compete on the biggest stage in the biggest moment, so I gave him that chance.”
Even after Harvey allowed the first runner to reach base via a walk, Collins left him in and stood by his call.
“No. I’m not a big believer in, if you send the guy out there and the first guy gets on, you go get him. If that’s the case, you shouldn’t have sent him out there to begin with. I just said, ‘OK, we’ll get the next guy, because he had pitched (Eric) Hosmer great the entire game.
“I still felt pretty good until he hit the ball over the left fielder’s head.”
I still can’t blame Collins for what happened that night. Harvey was the team’s ace, and he was absolutely dominant all game. Collins never would have heard the end of it from the fans and the media if he would have taken him out. Plus, a lot of credit has to be given to the Royals, who were an excellent team in the clutch and never gave up.
That being said, Collins definitely has the right mindset about it now. He can’t do anything to change what happened, so he just needs to focus on 2016 and hope for another chance to get back to the World Series.
