The New York Mets have made it official and announced that Matt Harvey will get the start on Tuesday against the Washington Nationals in DC.
On Saturday morning, Harvey pitched a few innings in a simulated game off the mound at Citi Field under the watchful eyes of pitching coach Dan Warthen.
Harvey is coming off the shortest and worst start of his career – allowing nine runs (six earned) in 2 2/3 innings against the Nationals.
However, while the team toyed with the idea of pulling him from the rotation, Harvey vowed that he would overcome his recent struggles and convinced team brass to let him pitch against the Nationals.
Original Report
Beleaguered New York Mets pitcher, Matt Harvey, will continue to start for the team. Manager, Terry Collins, met with his struggling starter on Friday and all was agreed upon to let him make his next scheduled start in Washington.
Harvey, who has never faced the adversity he currently is, finds himself with a 5.77 ERA to go along with a 3-6 record. His WHIP is at a career high 1.66, compared to his overall of 1.06. It has been a rough year to say the least, without any answers as to why this is happening to Matt. Harvey though, to his credit, wants to keep plugging away and right the ship.
“I was really glad to hear what he had to say,” Collins said. “This game is about confidence, and when it starts to waver and you start to doubt yourself, you’re going to have a tough time. And so last night, when I went in to talk to him after he came out of the game, I was really concerned about what he was going to say today. And he walked in like he normally does, unhappy the way he’s pitching, but said, ‘I want to pitch.’ And I was glad to hear that.” (NY Times)
It’s good to know that Harvey is not looking down on himself enough to not want to take the ball at this point. He has always been a bully on the mound and needs to dig down to find what is getting in his way of being the pitcher we all know he is capable of. His manager believes at this point, for the type of player he is, it is best to stay the course and let him attempt to right his season.
“In this particular case, we really think he’s got to get back on the horse as fast as he possibly can,” Collins said. “We’ve got to get him back out there. While he’s angry about some things, get him back out there.”
Since making his big league debut in 2012, he has electrified a fanbase that was dormant. He single handedly brought confidence back to a franchise that had become used to losing ever since Carlos Beltran took that third called strike in the 2006 NLCS. He was the very start of a movement that brought the Mets back to glory and to the 2015 World Series. Harvey deserves a chance to prove he can still be the elite starter he was. Soon enough the boos that rained down upon him in Thursday’s loss to the Nationals will turn back to the cheers and the chants he became accustomed to.
“It’ll happen again. This summer, it will happen again. I told him that today,” Collins said. “He will hear that again this summer. But you’ve got to be able to build on what you’re doing right now to get better to hear it, and I think he can handle it.”
For the first time in his career he faces a stubborn wall that he must break down. If it truly is a confidence issue, there is no reason to believe a pitcher such as himself could not gain it back. In a short career, he has proven his ability to dominate hitters at the major league level. Harvey has given us every reason to believe that he will be able to bounce back and get to where he needs to be to have success yet again.
