The Mets (2-1) took the series from the Washington Nationals (1-2) this afternoon by a score of 6-3 at Nationals Park.
Offense:
The Mets got on the board first this afternoon in the third inning. Ian Desmond committed yet another error – his third of the series – which led to the Mets putting up a four spot. Michael Cuddyer, Daniel Murphy, and Travis d’Arnaud all collected RBI’s in the process. The Mets scored eight runs total in the series, six of them have been unearned runs occurring subsequently after a Desmond error.
David Wright tacked on two more runs for the Mets in the sixth inning, with a two-run single to right field.
The Mets tallied ten hits today, two of which came from Travis d’Arnaud. After picking up RBI’s in his first two games, d’Arnaud was right back at it today, accumulating two more. After a dismal start to the 2014 season, d’Arnaud really looked sharp in the latter half of the campaign last year. Early on this year, it seems he is picking up where he left off. Let’s hope he can keep up the production.
Michael Cuddyer also had two hits, and his RBI single in the third was his first RBI as a Met.
Pitching:
The highlight of the day by far was seeing Matt Harvey take the mound for the first time since August, 2013. It seemed like he never left, as he mowed down the first batter he faced – Nationals outfielder Michael Taylor – with two 96 MPH heaters, and then dropped the hammer on him and quickly dispatched him from whence he came.
Harvey would pitch six scoreless innings, allowing four hits and walking one while striking out nine, earning his first win in 16 months. He topped out at 97 MPH and threw 91 pitches, 63 of them for strikes.
Alex Torres was called upon in the seventh inning and walked two batters before being replaced by Buddy Carlyle, coming off his first major league save on Monday evening. Carlyle served up a two-run double to Michael Taylor, with the runs credited to Torres, but Carlyle ended the inning without any further damage.
Carlos Torres pitched a clean eighth, and Jeurys Familia came on in the ninth, and despite allowing a run to score to cut the Mets lead in half, he shut the door, giving the Mets the series victory.
Thoughts:
This was such an important win for the Mets. Not only did we take two out of three games from the Nationals to kick off the season, we got to see Matt Harvey pitch just like he did when he last appeared in a game almost 600 days ago. It was a huge sigh of relief that he is okay, and that he is still the same old Harvey we love so much. Literally. He showed no dip in velocity and translated his performance from the spring (and pretty much the rest of his career) onto the mound today. It was a glorious Harvey Day indeed, and makes me so anxious to see him pitch again Tuesday. 🙂
Game Ball:
I think the unanimous verdict finds Matt Harvey deserving of the game ball this afternoon. I can’t rave enough about the guy.
On deck:
The Mets start a three game series tomorrow night at Turner Field in Atlanta with Jon Niese taking on Eric Stults.
