Even though Matt Harvey didn’t have his best stuff last night, he battled for six innings and kept the team in the game. He allowed three runs and five hits while striking out only two batters.
His night started out on a bad note with a homerun to Alcides Escobar on the first pitch of the game, but he quickly settled down and limited the damage. He escaped a jam in the second inning with two runners on, and he even had one stretch where he retired 11 constitutive batters.
However, he appeared to wear down in the 6th inning and gave up the Mets 3-1 lead after yielding two more runs. Terry Collins decided to not let him pitch into the 7th inning despite throwing just 80 pitches.
“I thought when we started the game, he wasn’t real sharp,” Collins said. “His command was off a little bit. As we’ve seen, he had to work so hard to get out of the first couple innings that late in the game, his ball started coming up, and that’s when I thought he was done.”
It wasn’t the dominating type of outing we are used to seeing from Harvey, but it was still a quality performance especially considering the strength of the Royals lineup.
“The scouting report doesn’t lie, what they’re good at, that’s what they do,” Harvey said. “I didn’t throw great. I didn’t have my good stuff. If I kept the two runs off the board in the sixth it might have been a different ball game.”
“I was more upset than anything I couldn’t hold the lead,” Harvey said. He’ll look to rebound and have better results in his next start, which will likely be in Game 5 at Citi Field.
