After a an incredibly dominating start in his season debut against the Washington Nationals, a start that had Gary Cohen saying, “It’s like he never left,” Matt Harvey is looking for more tonight when he takes on the Philadelphia Phillies.
“For me, 90 pitches through six innings is not good enough,” Harvey told reporters on Monday morning. “If I’m throwing 90 pitches, I’d like to get at least into the seventh.”
Harvey was in command all day against the Nationals, throwing first pitch strikes to 20 of the first 22 Nationals batters he faced. When all was said and done, he went six dominating and scoreless innings with nine strikeouts, tossing 91 pitches, 63 of them strikes. The most memorable part of his outing was watching him strike out Bryce Harper three times on high hard ones.
Still, as good as he was, Harvey sees room for improvement and is looking for an even better performance tonight with a focus on being more efficient with his pitches.
“Early attacking, a little bit more, a little bit better, a little more fine and try to get us later in the ballgame.”
Harvey will be performing at home this time, in front of crowd that will be cheering him on from the first pitch to the last as Harvey Day makes its return to Citi Field.
“Your home crowd is always behind you. For me they’ve been great, always been extremely supportive and very uplifting.”
Strap yourselves in and enjoy the spectacle.
