On a day when the Dark Knight displayed his former 98 mph fastball, he was out-dueled in the Miami sun by his counterpart, Jose Fernandez, who matched his career high 14 strikeouts en route to a 1-0 masterpiece over the Mets.
A resurgent Matt Harvey kept his cronies in the game for seven strong innings, but they didn’t uphold their end of the bargain with bats so silent you could hear a pin drop in the Marlins ballpark. Harvey averaged a season high 95.6 MPH on his fastball.
And although the offense of yesterday’s game was lost, the positive piece of Harvey’s cryptic pitching puzzle hopefully has been found.
The wrapped too tight right-hander gave up a run in the pesky 5th inning that has previously haunted him, but Harvey rebounded nicely after that with two scoreless innings to wrap up a very impressive start.
Not to take away from Fernandez’s dominance as the Marlin’s ace was undeniably better, but Harvey could have come away with a win if his mates could have delivered even one timely hit – especially when they had runners at first and third in the 7th.
The two Tommy John repaired pitching arms scattered nine hits between them, giving a ringing endorsement to the surgeons who gave them new life on the mound.
In light of this disappointing defeat, Terry Collins has to be over the moon at Harvey’s consecutive two game turnaround, extending his scoreless inning streak to 12, giving up only one run over his last 14.
“I think it’s going to ease Matt’s mind most of all, and that’s the one that counts,” Collins said about Harvey’s performance. “He felt good about what he did today, how he got through it. Kept the damage down and pitched great. It’s one of those games where a great pitching matchup, head-to-head, and that’s exactly what you’d expect, a 1-0 game.”
Harvey, while pleased with his performance of late, is being especially cautious of any premature champagne popping celebration.
“It’s still two starts,” Harvey said. “Obviously, the massive struggles that happened before, the only thing you want to think of is not letting that creep back in. Today was, you could say, a second step from the last start. Obviously, going deep into the game and feeling pretty good, it’s a positive.”
Positive indeed, for a guy who a couple of weeks ago couldn’t pitch his way out of a paper bag, or deter the demons of the diamond from messing with his mentally and mechanically challenged head.
