Kudos to Newsday on this spectacular back page in today’s paper that perfectly describes the super-charged atmosphere at Citi Field, no doubt fueled by a dominant pitching performance by right-hander Matt Harvey.
After the game, Harvey spoke to reporters and fielded questions.
Was cold weather a factor in setting up your secondary pitches, making it much harder for the Cubs to kind of react to that?
“Yeah, I think that was the game plan going in. I know I don’t like to watch video too, too much, but Dan Warthen came in a couple hours before the game and just we kind of went over the guys a little bit more than normal.”
“I think the biggest thing was right off the bat he just said, “Find your secondary stuff and kind of work off of that.” Luckily I was able to throw it for a strike when I needed to, and kind of keep them off balance. They hit a couple balls hard, but luckily they were right at guys. I really just tried to throw strikes and the guys made all the plays behind me and they made it easy.”
Were you happy with your performance after struggling somewhat in your NLDS start?
“I think after the first go around I definitely wasn’t happy. Obviously we won, and that was the most important thing. But I think I kind of said in the press conference yesterday that I really wanted to be back out there as much as I possibly could, and getting the ball the first game, I really wanted to start things off the right way and get us rolling. Fortunately enough I had things working pretty well, and we were able to do that.”
How’s the arm?
“The ball kind of dented my arm a little bit, got me right in the tricep. But I felt fine going out there again, and really felt fine through the rest of the game. It’s a little bit swollen right now, but the training staff will take care of that and we’ll be all set.”
After a tumultuous month, how did it feel to be hearing fans chanting your name?
“Oh, it was great. I think after everything that’s happened, I think the biggest thing was really staying focused on what I had to do tonight. Regardless of what’s happened, my job was to go out and give us quality innings and keep the damage down and really, like I said, get us starting off right.”
“I wanted to go out there. I wanted this game bad, and luckily we put up some runs. I was able to limit damage, like Murph said. It was a complete team win, and it was nice being able to contribute to that.”
On pitching in the 8th inning.
“I think right away he (Terry) asked how the tricep was doing and if I was fine, and after I said the tricep was all good, it really wasn’t much conversation after that. I give him a lot of thanks for trusting me to go back out there.”
“Unfortunately, I threw a ball over the middle, and that hasn’t landed yet, but luckily Familia, who in my mind is the best closer in the game, came in and shut them down.”
