PHILADELPHIA — Scouts have seen it all. I sat with four of them yesterday during Matt Harvey’s dominating performance against the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park, and even they were amazed by the young powerful right-hander.
“I want to know who were the six guys drafted ahead of Harvey?’’ one scout demanded.
“Harvey is a lot like [Justin] Verlander,’’ complimented another, “but there is one big difference now, he can go at a better pace than Verlander.’’
There is no stopping Harvey. He upped his record to 7-1 with the Mets’ 8-0 win over the Phillies as he produced six shutout innings, allowing only two hits and one walk as he struck out six. A rain storm got him out of the game.
This was an outing that had “All-Star Game starter’’ written all over it as Harvey’s ERA dipped to 2.05.
“It would be huge,’’ Harvey said of an All-Star start at Citi Field.
The scouts weren’t the only ones making Verlander comparisons.
“Verlander jumps out because he holds his velocity like Verlander does through the game,’’ Phils third baseman Michael Young explained. “Felix [Hernandez] was like that for a long time. But Verlander jumps out with good velocity and he can throw off-speed pitches for strikes, too. Command is the most important thing. There are a lot of guys in the big leagues that throw hard. [Harvey] can control his pitches and gets ahead in the count. That’s why he’s had his success.’’
That’s some company — Verlander and King Felix.
Harvey left opposing hitters mumbling.
He dropped a curveball on Jimmy Rollins to start the bottom of the first and then struck out Rollins in that at-bat with another curve that fell off the table.
“Jimmy is a good fastball hitter,’’ catcher John Buck told The Post. “Him being a student of the game and a good fastball hitter, I didn’t want him jumping on a fastball, so I talked to Harv and I have as much confidence in that [curve] that he’ll throw it for a strike as I do in his fastball, so I said, ‘Hey, let’s do it.’
“That pitch let all their hitters know that we could do this if we want,’’ Buck added. “Then we went changeup, fastball and curveball again to Jimmy.’’
Rollins’ response was typical of the comments that Buck has been hearing from opposing hitters after one of Harvey’s devastating sliders, fastballs or curves finishes them off. It is usually one word.
No, not that word. This word: “Really?’’
They are amazed.
Harvey was throwing his slider at 91-93 again. “He throws what I call a true slider,’’ said an AL scout. “It’s not a cutter, it’s a slider with that late, hard break.’’
After Harvey got Rollins on that 83-mph curveball he struck out Domonic Brown with a 99-mph fastball in the second. He ended that inning with another swinging strikeout of Ben Revere with an 0-2, 100-mph pitch.
“Yeah, I let that one go,’’ Harvey said with a smile.
In the third Harvey finished off opposing pitcher John Lannan with a 98 mph rocket. He got Brown again in the fourth with an up-and-in at 99 and his last K came on a 91-mph slider that simply overmatched Young.
“He’s a freak,’’ said one scout who was seeing Harvey for the first time. “You can just see from his body language how competitive he is.’’
When Ryan Howard managed a broken-bat single to lead off the second he went to first base and muttered something along the lines of: “His [bleeping] curveball is breaking my bat.’’
When asked what was his favorite Harvey pitch of the day, Buck smiled and said: “Any pitch that got me closer to that dugout. It was hot out there. They were all that good.’’
The six players picked ahead of Harvey in that 2010 draft were Bryce Harper, Jameson Taillon, Manny Machado, Christian Colon, Drew Pomeranz and Barret Loux.
Matt Harvey continues to be the talk of MLB.