The game was playing out just like the season — Matt Harvey was cruising and Matt Kemp was struggling.
The Mets and Dodgers were tied at one in the sixth inning of Wednesday’s game at Citi Field and Harvey had retired 16 of the previous 17 batters he faced when he walked Adrian Gonzalez. Kemp came to the plate, 0-for-2 with a strikeout, and cracked a fastball from the 24-year-old phenom high into the dark, windy sky, the ball slicing sharply toward the foul pole in right field.
The ball sailed over the glove of an outstretched Marlon Byrd and landed near the top of the fence, bouncing back onto the field, as Gonzalez scored and Kemp sprinted around the bases, settling at third base.
Confusion kicked in. Was it a home run? The umpires went to review the video, but Mets security guard Paolo Neto already knew, the ball having bounced off his hands while sitting in the chair of his usual post.
“It was over the fence,” Neto told The Post. “I was just sitting there when I saw the ball. I didn’t even think it was going to reach me, but it came right at me. I was just trying to protect myself and it hit me in the hands.”
The umpires reviewed the film for more than two minutes, reversing the original call on the field, giving Kemp his first home run of the season and the Dodgers a 3-1 lead, which was not enough in the Mets’ 10-inning 7-3 comeback win.
Neto, who has been working security at Mets games for 14 years, had his chair located several feet beyond the fence, well beyond anyone outside of Stretch Armstrong’s reach to pull a Jeffrey Maier. But Kemp couldn’t know that. He was on third base.
Kemp, who hit 12 home runs last April, had gone his first 75 at-bats of the season without a home run, entering his third meeting with Harvey, and ended the night 1-for-3 with a walk and three RBIs.
Harvey would face just one more batter after being pulled for a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the inning. The young right-hander is 4-0 and now has a 1.54 ERA, having allowed three runs, four hits and one walk, along with seven strikeouts in the no-decision.
In his fifth start of the season, Harvey failed to reach seven innings and allow more than one run for the first time this season, but the bullpen, of LaTroy Hawkins, Scott Rice, Scott Atchison and Bobby Parnell combined for four scoreless and hitless innings.