Matt Harvey left in the sixth inning with the lead but the Mets bullpen couldn’t hold the lead ending their seven game-winning streak. The Mets were homerless for the first time in four games, once again manufactured runs and nearly winning the game with the bases loaded in the 10th inning.
Here are three takeaways from the disappointing loss.
1. Travis d’Arnaud Stays Hot
D’Arnaud hit a fourth inning line drive RBI single and a seventh inning RBI walk continuing to lead this Mets offense. Over the last six games d’Arnaud’s batting .385 with three home runs, four doubles and 11 RBI.
Impressively, during this span d’Arnaud is hitting to all fields evenly with batted balls end up 22.7% in left field, 45.5% in centerfield and 31.8% in right field.
This proves d’Arnaud is seeing the baseball well, as he is “going with the pitches”. Simply, “going with the pitch” means the hitter pulls an inside pitch, hits middle pitch up the middle into the gaps and hits outside pitches to the opposite field.
Additionally, this hitting makes it difficult to align defenses because this hitting is unpredictable, taking away any option of a defensive shift.
For the remainder of the season, expect d’Arnaud to continue to hit well with approximately .310 batting average, five homeruns and doubles in the mid-teens.
2. Matt Harvey: 6 IP, 0 R, 2 H, 8 SO, 1 BB
Harvey’s five pitch repertoire balanced with sharp movement and above average velocity is arguably the best in MLB. As discussed before, the last step for Harvey is his pitch command, specifically fastball command.
Although the majority of Harvey’s fastballs are located well, there is tendency for erratic fastballs over the plate or well out of the strike zone (not counting two strike fastballs intentionally thrown out of the strike zone to induce swing and misses). Those erratic fastballs may not always lead to hits but propel his pitch count. As seen last night, this forces Harvey out of the game after throwing 103 pitches in six scoreless innings.
Harvey’s command is very close to becoming consistently unhittable. Hopefully his premier pitch repertoire will meet pinpoint pitch command by October.
3. Carlos Torres 10th Inning Blunder
Yesterday’s article explained Torres’ negative attributes, referencing average breaking ball command and below average fastball command.
Blake Swihart, Mookie Betts and Xander Bogaerts had their RBI hits on fastballs poorly located upper thigh height over the middle of the plate. Add another fastball down the middle that was fouled off and Torres threw 36% of his fastball thigh to belt high over the middle of home plate. A pitcher throwing 98 mph might get lucky with little to no damage but at 92 to 95 mph, serious will and did occur.
As warned yesterday, set expectations low for Torres.
Follow Chris Zaccherio on Twitter @ziography for more Mets insight going beyond statistics.
