On cold winter days David Wright would sometimes stop in at Citi Field for a workout, and there was Matt Harvey pushing himself like nothing Wright ever had seen before from a young pitcher.
“There were a few days when you walked outside and you got the Tom Coughlin wind-burned face, and he was out there running stairs,’’ Wright told the Post Tuesday night. “We would go throw and I would have to go inside to thaw out and he’d have a weight vest on running the bleachers.
“You could tell then that he was all-in and the pitcher he was going to be.’’
The Mets were all-in Tuesday night at Citi Field, scoring two runs in the ninth inning against Mariano Rivera to beat the Yankees, 2-1 for their second straight win in the Subway Series after Harvey pitched a magnificent eight innings.
“The guys played their butts off tonight,’’ Harvey said.
That’s how the Mets play when Matt Harvey is on the mound.
“He’s the ultimate competitor,’’ Wright said. “He’s an animal out there and tonight was about as good as I’ve seen him.’’
Daniel Murphy led off the ninth with a double and came home on Wright’s single. Wright went to second as the throw from center fielder Brett Gardner kicked away at home. Lucas Duda, who is 5-for-34 with runners in scoring position, then punched a single to right-center as Wright scored the winning run and the Mets, with Harvey leading the way, celebrated on the field.
It was a dramatic night. Harvey again showed what tremendous a young pitcher he has become before 31,877 fans.
“He’s amazing to watch even from left field,’’ Duda said. “Sometimes I catch myself just watching instead of playing. He’s a fierce competitor. You always know what you are going to get out of him.’’
The Mets become more competitive on the nights Harvey pitches. “He fires you up,’’ Duda said. “It’s just fun to take the field with him.’’
Added Wright, “To win the way we did tonight, especially against the best closer to ever do it, means a lot.’’
The game was delayed an hour and 31 minutes because of rain and Harvey was like a caged animal from the start.
“I don’t know what would have happened if that game was delayed much more than it was,’’ manager Terry Collins said. “He came in no less than four times, sweat dripping off him, he didn’t even have his uniform on him and I’ll tell you one thing that was cool. He said, ‘I want to pitch tonight and I want to pitch in this ballpark.’ He was amped up.’’
The Mets made two errors behind Harvey. They could not score a run against a magnificent Hiroki Kuroda and when a Mets player did get in scoring position like Ruben Tejada did in the sixth, he was picked off second base. Collins was thrown out of the game by second base umpire Adrian Johnson after that play. As Collins left the field he kicked first base, showing his frustration.
Harvey was blasted by a line drive in the side in the seventh off the bat of Ichiro Suzuki, but simple picked up the ball and threw out Ichiro at first base. As trainer Ray Ramirez rushed out, Harvey waved him off and continued firing 95 mph fastballs as he got through the inning.
Harvey allowed a two-out single to Lyle Overbay in the sixth that scored Gardner from third. Gardner singled to lead off the inning and moved to second on the hit when right-fielder Marlon Byrd booted the ball. That was the second straight inning the Mets made an error behind Harvey to start the inning. After Overbay’s single, Harvey, who grew up a Yankees fan and a fan of the fiery Paul O’Neill was furious and at the end of the inning as he walked into the Mets’ dugout he slammed his glove, a la O’Neill, onto the railing.
Harvey does not like to give up runs.
“I was mad,’’ he said.
“The jump that he made from last year to this year is incredible,’’ Wright said. “The understanding of what it takes to be successful over a long period of time in this league just hit him at some point and instead of going out there like a typical young pitcher and try to strike everybody out and you are out of the game in the fifth inning with 100 pitches, he’s trying to pitch to contact and a lot of times they still can’t hit it.’’
Harvey allowed one run on six hits over his eight innings. He did not walk a batter and struck out 10 Yankees in his 114 pitches. His most impressive strikeout of the season came in the third. Gardner’s two-out single put runners on first and second with two out. That hit brought Robinson Cano to the plate. Harvey and Cano got into a fierce battle with Cano fouling off several two-strike fastballs.
Harvey then unleashed a cobra slider that Cano missed for strike three, Harvey’s third strikeout of the inning.
In the fifth, Harvey overcame Tejada’s bad throw to start the inning and got two more strikeouts in the inning.
Harvey did not get the win, but the Mets did.
In games Matt Harvey pitches, the Mets become winners.