Lost in all of the excitement and all of the drama that unfolded at Citi Field on Friday night, was a scintillating performance by Mets right-hander Matt Harvey.
In what was his most dominating performance of the season to date, Harvey overpowered the Washington Nationals, retiring the first 16 batters of the game until catcher Jose Lobaton finally touched him for a hit with one out in the sixth.
Harvey did not allow a run until the eighth inning, and if not for a blown call by the home plate umpire who ruled that pinch-hitter Clint Robinson was hit on the foot by a pitch (he wasn’t), it should have been eight scoreless innings for the Dark Knight.
Harvey struck out nine batters and allowed just five hits and no walks in his 7.2 innings of work, lowering his ERA to 2.91 for the season.
“That’s the best command, I thought on both sides of the plate, he’s had all year,” Mets manager Terry Collins said.
Harvey is 3-3 with a 1.86 ERA (53.1 innings) over his last eight starts dating to June 16 and opponents are batting against him over this stretch.
He is the second Mets pitcher to toss 5.0 perfect innings this week after Noah Syndergaard retired the first 18 batters he faced against San Diego on Tuesday.
“The last couple of outings have been a huge improvement” said Harvey who was still awestruck by the Mets walk-off victory. “Being able to throw the slider and locate my fastball a little better has been a huge difference.”
With the Mets locked in battle with the Nationals for the NL East title, Matt Harvey might just be the best weapon we have against them. He is 3-2 with a 0.99 ERA in eight career starts vs. Washington, the best ERA for any pitcher against the Nationals with at least five starts against them.
“I was pretty locked in…”, Harvey said. “I knew what was going on. The biggest thing was trying to keep them off the board.”
The Nationals have a .179 (35-196) batting average against Harvey in his career. He has allowed no more than five hits in each of his eight career starts against them. Are you getting all this, Bryce?
Harvey has also been invincible at home. He now has a 2.21 career ERA at Citi Field, the fourth-best home ERA for any MLB starter in his first three major league seasons since 1950 trailing only Dwight Gooden (1.85), Jerry Koosman (2.01) and Orel Hershiser (2.08). Wow…
Asked to summarize how the events of the last 24 hours felt to him, Harvey said:
“We added some key pieces and we couldn’t be happier. To get the win and get Cespedes on Friday, we’re all looking forward to playing the second half.”
So are we, Matt… So are we. 🙂
