The Dark Knight rises.
Mets pitcher Matt Harvey may have won some of his teammates back after his performance in yesterdays’s clincher against the Cincinnati Reds. The plan all along was to have Harvey pitch just five innings, and then be done, perhaps being shut down for the remainder of the season. Instead, it was Harvey who decided to deviate from plans. He went on to throw 6.2 innings and help the Mets cruise to their first division title in nine years.
“I think Matt got frustrated by what happened in the Yankee game,” said Mets manager Terry Collins. “He got caught in the middle of this thing, and I’ve said all along that he’s a good teammate, but some guys in that clubhouse got turned off by it. And I can understand that.”
Yesterday however, Harvey proved to his teammates that he’s in this for the long haul. His final line may not have been the prettiest, but it didn’t have to be. He threw a total of 97 pitches and after two first inning runs, he held down the fort while striking out six batters. Harvey could have easily come out in the fifth inning with the Mets already up 6-2, but no, this time it was Harvey who decided against that and pitched into the seventh before being removed after two outs.
Collins told reporters that during batting practice at Citi Field last Tuesday, Harvey approached him and asked to talk to him. “The way he said it, I knew something was eating at him,” said Collins. The discussion may have been what prompted Collins to keep him yesterday’s game longer than expected.
One person who wasn’t caught off guard by this was Mets general manager Sandy Alderson. “I wasn’t surprised,” said Alderson. “It was going to have to be his decision. When he said that that’s what he wanted to do, I was proud of him, actually, because he made his own decision.”
It was in fact his own decision, and at least for now, Harvey can quiet all the fans who doubted whether or not he would pitch in the postseason. “I wanted to be out there more than anybody, said Harvey. “I always wanted to be out there. Especially these games coming down to October, the last thing I ever want to do is not be out there. Today, it just couldn’t have played out any better.”
“He was disturbed,” Collins added. “He understood it, but he was not happy with it. So I was not surprised when he walked in and said, ‘I want to pitch.’ I said, ‘It’s always been your call. You have to make the decisions. It’s your life. It’s your career. You’re going to make the call. If you want to pitch, you’re going to pitch.’”
“I need to throw 100 pitches in my next two outings,” Harvey stressed to Collins. “We’re going to win this, and I need to be ready for the playoffs, and I’m not ready.”
There are tons of story lines to go along with this magic carpet ride the Mets have put us on this season, but the story of Matt Harvey has been ongoing and evolving all year long and now appears to be at a good place for him and the team. According to Harvey, Saturday was the most important game of the year for a team that had watched the playoffs from home for the past nine years. It validated all the hard work and confidence that began in Spring Training when the team first started talking about October baseball, back when few took them seriously.
The Mets will have plenty more important games to the play for what hopefully will be at least another month of baseball, and it looks like that at least for now the Mets and their fans can expect to count on Harvey to be a very big part of it.
(Updated 9/28)
Photo courtesy of Anthony J. Causi, NY Post.
