ACHING ACE: Mets ace Matt Harvey reacts on the mound during yesterday’s 3-0 loss to the Tigers and AL Cy Young favorite Max Scherzer, who won his 19th while Harvey suffered through his ninth start in which his teammates scored two runs or fewer for him. (
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Matt Harvey got outdueled in his historic matchup with Detroit’s Max Scherzer, the first time the two All-Star Game starting pitchers had ever squared off in the same regular season. But despite mounting fatigue, an errant slider and a performance he said was atrocious, he kept his Mets in the game.
It was just a shame their offense didn’t show up.
As usual, the Mets gave Harvey no support. This time they were shut out, 3-0, by the Tigers in front of 35,636 at Citi Field, squandering a tenacious Harvey outing that was far more hard work than work of art. He scuffled, he struggled and in the end he lost to a dominant Scherzer, who frankly humbled the Mets, who have scored two runs in their last three games, their worst three-game stretch since Aug. 13-15, 2010.
Harvey (9-5) allowed a career-high 13 hits in 6 2/3 hard-fought frames, but didn’t walk a batter and somehow held AL Central-leading Detroit to just two second-inning runs. But after the Mets couldn’t muster a single run for him, and lost for the fifth time in his last six starts, what did Harvey think of his own performance?
“Pretty crappy,” Harvey said. “Obviously giving up 13 hits isn’t ideal for a starting pitcher. I was not happy about giving up runs, and I gave up too many hits. It was just a poor performance. We needed zeros today, and not as many hits. I wasn’t able to do that.’’
Scherzer (19-1), the AL Cy Young favorite, allowed just three hits and struck out 11, becoming only the third pitcher to win 19 of his first 20 starts. But it poses the question of what Harvey could do with the kind of supports Scherzer gets.
The Mets are just 13-13 in Harvey’s starts, having mustered 30 runs in those 13 losses, and after they lost for the 10th time in Harvey’s last 15 starts, manager Terry Collins admitted fatigue is setting in.
“What we saw is a guy working as hard as he can, but you’re seeing the effects of his first full season up here, where it’s a grind. He’s doing the best he can, and battled,’’ said Collins. “[You saw] a couple hanging sliders that he doesn’t usually do, the changeup wasn’t as effective early in the game as it normally is.’’
Harvey refused to use that as an alibi.
“I’m getting pretty tired, but so is everybody,” he said. “You have to work through it, have to deal with it. It’s a long season. You have to figure out how to get things done, and my performance the last couple of starts has been pretty terrible. I’ve got to work through it and get better.’’
Harvey surrendered his only runs in the second inning, and it was Scherzer who hurt him the most, lacing a 96 mph fastball for a line drive to left that plated Andy Dirks. Austin Jackson’s RBI infield single made it 2-0, and that was enough.
Eric Young Jr. fanned on a 78 mph curveball to strand two in the fifth, and — after Wilmer Flores walked on four pitches to load the bases in the sixth — the bottom of the lineup came up small against Scherzer. Juan Lagares struck out and John Buck popped up the first pitch he saw to end the rally and trigger boos from the crowd.
The Mets’ defense kept it close when Young threw Omar Infante out at home trying to score on Prince Fielder’s seventh-inning single. But Detroit added an insurance run in the ninth on Don Kelly’s RBI sacrifice fly off Pedro Feliciano and the Mets went down quietly in the ninth against Joaquin Benoit.
“As we’ve seen these last couple nights, we’re taking strikes, and swinging at balls,’’ Collins said. “That’s not the approach you want.’’