Matt Harvey picked up his first win of the season last night in what was another shaky start for the “Dark Knight.” Harvey improved his record to 1-3 on the season and lowered his ERA just a bit, to 5.24. He looked at last night’s performance as a step in the right direction as the Mets defeated the Atlanta Braves by a score of 6-3.
“Still a work in progress,” Harvey said. “Parts of the game felt better and felt like I was releasing the ball the way I should be, other times it was not that way. There were more positives than negatives in this one.” (NY Post)
Harvey pitched just five innings, throwing 101 pitches total. He allowed two runs on seven hits while walking one and striking out five. It was his shortest outing of the season. Harvey almost did not make it out of the fifth inning, but center fielder Yoenis Cespedes saved him on a two-out single by A.J. Pierzynski, when he gunned down Nick Markakis at the plate with a powerful throw.
“They were one hit or one throw in that matter away from scoring another run and whatever else could have happened,” Harvey acknowledged.
Run support was not a problem on this day, as Harvey was staked to a 5-0 lead in the second inning. He gave two right back and settled down for three scoreless innings before departing. His control though did not seem to be there, balls were being left up in the zone, and his mechanics still seemed a bit out of whack. Harvey was working on a mechanics issue that Dan Warthen found while he is pitching out of the stretch.
“At times I was able to do that,” Harvey said. “At times I kind of fell out of it, so we’ve just got to refine that and start fresh tomorrow and get ready for my next start.”
Matt struggled putting batters away in numerous two-strike counts throughout the night. We are so used to seeing him being able to miss bats and get the strike out, but he has struggled with that this year. Harvey needs to find a way to get back to where he previously was and get back on track. Manager, Terry Collins has noticed the difference from years past.
“There’s a lot of times in certain situations where he misses bats,” Collins said. “Right now, he’s having a tough time putting people away. He gets ahead of them, and he’s pounding the zone and foul ball, foul ball, foul ball.”
All in all, hopefully this is just an issue of mechanics for Harvey and not something worse. His velocity seems to be there, which is a good sign. Still, everyone anxiously awaits for Harvey to get back to being the lights out pitcher he has been through his career.
