Washington’s Max Scherzer was brilliant on Saturday night in what is being tabbed as one of the greatest pitching performances in the history of the game. Scherzer tossed a no-hitter against the Mets, his second of the season, and struck out a whopping 17 batters in the process.
However, lost in the historic night, was a dominating performance by our own Matt Harvey (13-8) who struck out 11 Nationals in his final regular season start of the year.
Harvey tossed six strong innings and allowed an unearned run in his final tuneup before a Game 3 start against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLDS, set to begin next Friday.
He wraps up his first season back from Tommy John surgery with a 2.71 ERA and 1.021 WHIP in 29 starts, striking out 188 batters in 189.1 innings pitched while walking 37. Of his 29 starts, Harvey allowed one run or less in 15 of those outings.
“I really didn’t know what to expect,” said Harvey about his season. “I started off really hot and I hit a down point throughout the year… But finishing strong and being where I’m at right now and going to the playoffs, I couldn’t be happier with the season.”
Asked to comment about exceeding the 180 innings cap, Harvey didn’t want to hear it.
“I think all those innings talks, I think I’m done talking about that. I think everybody is kind of sick of that. We’re concentrating on the playoffs. We’re ready to go, and I think we’ve kind of put all of that behind of us.” (Adam Rubin, ESPN New York)
Manager Terry Collins has said that Harvey will have no restrictions in his playoff start against the Dodgers and that if needed he will start two games each in both the NL Championship Series and the World Series – or in other words, no handcuffs for the Dark Knight who heads into the postseason on the heels of two very powerful pitching performances.
