DOMINATING: Matt Harvey, delivering a pitch in the second inning last night, allowed just one hit and no runners to reach second base in seven innings in the Mets’ 8-4 win over the Padres. (Bill Kostroun/New York Post)
DOMINATING: Matt Harvey, delivering a pitch in the second inning last night, allowed just one hit and no runners to reach second base in seven innings in the Mets’ 8-4 win over the Padres. (Bill Kostroun)
No Matter how this season goes. No matter if it ends with a pittance or a pennant, every time Matt Harvey takes the ball for the Mets has meaning.
So what if there were only 22,239 fans at frigid Citi Field last night? Harvey’s performance in his season debut was heartwarming. The 24-year-old hard-throwing right-hander struck out 10 over seven shutout innings en route to an 8-4 triumph over the Padres.
Harvey allowed just one hit and two walks while thoroughly dominating a Padres lineup that had trouble catching up with a his blazing fastball early and was kept off-balance by his curveball and changeup.
“I wanted to attack the hitters,” Harvey said. “I wasn’t trying to light up the radar gun. I was just trying to attack the zone.”
The Mets are building their future around pitching, a process that hasn’t been very successful in recent years, but is the foundation of general manager Sandy Alderson’s master plan to make them competitive again. We’ve seen this before going back to the Generation K days of the mid-1990s when Paul Wilson, Bill Pulsipher, and Jason Isringhausen were supposed to be the second-coming of Dwight Gooden and Ron Darling. All three underwhelmed as did projected phenoms such as Aaron Heilman, Scott Kazmir and Mike Pelfrey.
There’s no guarantee Harvey will be the ace the Mets project him to be. Injuries, a loss of command and confidence have sabotaged many can’t-miss prospects. But for now there is hope Harvey can become all that he is expected to be. He sure looked like it last night.
“As he continues to grow, he’s going to develop into a really, really good pitcher because he knows how to use his weapons,” Met manager Terry Collins said.
His weapons include a fastball in the mid-to-upper 90s that is being complemented by a newly developed changeup Harvey fine-tuned in the spring. His command was impressive considering the elements.
“You grab the baseball in that kind of weather and it’s like a cue ball,” Collins said. “The fact he commanded the fastball as well as he did is impressive.”
The Padres had no chance last night. Harvey made an early statement, striking out the first two batters he faced and four of the first five. He had one stretch through the fifth and seventh innings when he struck out five of six. Unlike last season when the Mets totaled four runs in his four starts at Citi Field, Harvey got plenty of support last night as Ike Davis, Lucas Duda and John Buck each belted two-run home runs.
It couldn’t have been a better debut for Harvey, who threw 94 pitches, 63 for strikes. The lone hit he allowed came when Everth Cabrera led off the fourth with a sharp single to center. Harvey’s fastball was clocked at 97 when he struck out opposing pitcher Clayton Richard to end the third and he also did the little things, like when he picked off the fleet-footed Cabrera from first base in the fourth.
“It’s one outing,” Harvey said. “I plan on having hopefully 30 this season. There’s a lot of work to be done.”
This could be a monster season for Harvey, who finished his rookie season 3-5 with a 2.75 ERA in 10 starts last year for the Mets. He totaled 70 strikeouts, 26 walks and 42 hits allowed in 59 1/3 innings.
Not every night will go as easily as it did last night. Harvey is an intense pitcher and the Mets worked throughout much of last season to keep him from putting too much pressure on himself to succeed.
“There are those guys that expect a lot out of themselves,” Collins said. “He knows how good he can be, therefore he expects himself to go out and pitch better on certain nights.”
The Mets will settle for Harvey having more good nights than bad nights, no matter how this season goes.