The plight of Mets pitching was on full display against the Phillies Friday night at Citizen’s Bank Park.
Matt Harvey’s final performance of the season ended as futile as it began in New York’s 6-2 loss in the first game of their final series. The right-hander’s 6.70 ERA also set a record for highest by any player in franchise history with at least 90 innings tossed.
Showing more shades of a damaged knight than a dark one, Harvey lasted a familiar four innings in which he surrendered four runs on seven hits. He struck out as many as he walked with three.
Despite ending his season on a negative note, Harvey is looking to bury this past year with the hope of a promising future.
“The positive is this nightmare of a season is over for me,” Harvey said. “I can look forward to a progressive offseason of getting everything back and making sure I am in good shape for spring training.”
Adding to his long list of ill-fated moments, the 28-year-old added a bizarre run-scoring balk to his resume.
With runners on second and third in the third inning, as Harvey prepared to fire a pitch to the plate, his hand hit his knee causing the ball to fall to the ground bringing in the Phillies fourth run.
The offense didn’t help his cause as Jose Reyes and Dominic Smith provided the only Mets offense via solo home runs in the first and fifth, respectively.
In his attempt to come back from last summer’s surgery to address the symptoms of Thoracic outlet syndrome, Harvey finished the season 5-7 with much to be desired.
“Coming back from this process has been curveball, curveball of different feelings and different strengths,” Harvey said of the relatively unknown rehab from the surgery. “It’s new for a lot of people and something I tried to push through at times through pain and weakness. I think I just kind of put myself in a hole throughout that process.”
Will the pitching staff that remains or is replaced by an improved version be able to put the dejected starter back together again? That’s the big question moving forward as the Mets are certain to retain him for 2018.
