He’s Back!
The Mets (29-21) beat the White Sox (27-25) by a score of 1-0 on Monday afternoon at Citi Field.
Matt Harvey tossed a gem for the Mets, allowing 2 hits and a walk in 7 shutout innings, striking out 6 on 87 efficient pitches.
Harvey went up against Chicago stud Jose Quintana (who the Mets originally signed in 2006), who matched zeroes with The Dark Knight for most of the day.
The Mets stranded a few runners in the first six innings, including Ty Kelly, who was left on first after his first career hit. The White Sox did little against Harvey (who got help from a great diving stop by Wilmer Flores) in the early going, and the game was scoreless going into the 7th. But the game turned right there. After Harvey worked out of a jam in the top of the inning, Neil Walker led off the bottom of the frame with a solo shot that would ultimately decide the contest.
Addison Reed tossed a quick, scoreless eighth, and Jeurys Familia, who got rocked in consecutive non-save-situation appearances against the Dodgers this weekend, posted a perfect ninth to get back on the horse and end the ballgame.
What a big game for Harvey. After so many bad outings to start the year, he finally had a solid, steady performance today. It was his first time going into the seventh and his first time allowing zero runs. He got hit a bit harder after the first time through the order, and almost let the game get away from him the third time through, so he’s not out of the woods just yet. But this was a very, very encouraging performance with obviously stellar results.
Familia had a big outing as well, retiring the side in order to pick up his 32nd straight regular season save and ease whatever doubts may have arisen during the Dodgers series. He’ll need to get his slider going soon, but Dan Warthen can fix any slider in the land, so I’m not too worried.
It was another quiet night for the bats, but it’s hard to do much against guys like Quintana (let alone the Kershaws). Harvey kept the Mets in the game until somebody could get the big hit and eventually Walker got that hit, continuing his recent hot streak after a rough start to the month of May.
Rene Rivera is doing a great job with this pitching staff, and making a great case for some major playing time.
The Mets will look to make it two in a row against the ChiSox on Tuesday at 7:10 PM when Steven Matz (7-1, 2.36 ERA) takes on Mat Latos (6-1, 4.06) in New York.
