Despite having not pitched in 11 days, Mets right-hander Matt Harvey delivered six scoreless innings on Friday night against the Boston Red Sox.
Harvey struck out eight batters in a solid 103 pitch effort and wanted to remain in the game, but manager Terry Collins thought otherwise and gave his ace the hook.
“He wanted to throw another inning,” Collins said. “And I just said, We can’t do it. That’s why we gave you the time off. We aren’t here to tax you. We’re here to make sure you can get through the month and play into the postseason.”
Logan Verrett relieved Harvey and the Red Sox quickly pounced on him for three runs including two homers that put them ahead of the Mets 3-2 in the seventh.
“Although I wanted to stay out there, it was ultimately his call,” Harvey said.
Harvey has allowed two runs in his last five starts and has a 1.34 ERA in his last 12 starts dating to June 16, second only to the Dodgers’ Zack Greinke (1.28).
Amazingly, he has allowed no more than one run and no more than one walk in each of his last five starts dating to July 31, tying him with Tom Seaver for the longest such streak in franchise history.
While the Mets say they plan on skipping a start for Noah Syndergaard, they do not intend on skipping Harvey again in the regular season although those circumstances are not set in stone.
“We do not plan on having to skip him again,” Collins said of Harvey. “We don’t want to. But you can’t say we’re not going to.”
Harvey has now allowed one run or less in 31 career starts, the most such starts in a pitcher’s first 60 career games in the last 100 years of major league baseball.
Unfortunately, due to an extreme lack of run support, Harvey has not received the win in 17 of those 31 career starts, an MLB record. In 20 career no-decisions, he has a 1.73 ERA.
Maybe we should call him Hard Luck Harvey…
