PORT ST. LUCIE — Of all the people at Tradition Field on Friday, few paid more attention to Justin Verlander than Matt Harvey.
“I’d never seen him throw live before,” Harvey said Saturday of the Tigers ace. “It was kind of cool to watch.”
Like Verlander, Harvey is a powerful right-hander and the Mets are counting on him to be, if not Verlander, a reasonable facsimile.
And that is Harvey’s goal, as well.
The next step is taking some of what he saw Verlander do against the Mets and applying it on the mound.
“Just what he does and how he warms up,” Harvey said of what he focused on with Verlander. “The way he mixes everything in and the communication with his catcher throughout the game. He’s one of the best. Me, being a person that wants to be the best, would watch something like that.”
Harvey threw 2 2/3 innings against the Marlins Saturday in his second spring start, giving up a leadoff homer on a hanging breaking ball to Miami’s Christian Yelich and threw 28 strikes in a 50-pitch outing of an 8-8 game.
Despite his admiration, Harvey isn’t ready to emulate Verlander’s spring regimen.
“Everyone sees him in midseason when he’s throwing 100, but it looked like he was playing a game out there,” Harvey said. “He was throwing 91-94 [mph]. It’s funny to watch him throw that when he’s got that 100 in his back pocket. But he’s got a lot more time than I do. He can play around with a lot more things than I can.”
Harvey’s fastball sat in the mid-90s.
“He throws 230-plus innings a year,” Harvey said. “Obviously, he’s doing something right, so why not watch what he does in preparation and try and emulate someone like that?”
Harvey added he has yet to talk to the Cy Young Award winner.
“Not this time,” Harvey said. “I just sat back and watched. Hopefully, I’ll chew his brain a little bit down the road.”
* Lucas Duda returned to the lineup after missing Friday’s game because of a medical issue and hit a home run. “After the start he had, that was really good for him,” Terry Collins said. … David Wright made one final appearance at Tradition Field before leaving for the WBC.