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Matt Harvey surrendered another first inning home run to Jason Heyward and wasn’t helped out by his offense as Paul Maholm and the Atlanta Braves shut out the New York Mets 4-0.
Matt Harvey took to the mound in hopes that his first home start of his career would help the Mets go up 1-0 in the weekend series against division-rival Atlanta. Instead, Harvey was thrown into another chapter of the Mets-Braves rivalry and was plagued with an early punch to the stomach and little run support. A formula that Atlanta had perfected since 1996.
Harvey hurled six innings of two run two hit ball, a stat line that would have normally given the phenom the “W”, Harvey is experiencing what it is to put on a New York Mets uniform.
For a franchise that has had only a handful of winning seasons, part of one-sided rivalries and of course a history of iconic pitchers, Matt Harvey has learned that solid pitching will not last with this organization.
Coming off of his worst start of his short career, Harvey was under a lot of scrutiny from his manager and general manager to throw more fastballs. In his first start Harvey threw his fastball 63% of the time, in his last start he only threw his fastball 54% of the time.
Tonight Harvey delivered his fastball at speeds of 96mph and has proven that his fastball is by far his best pitch that he has the most confidence.
Normally I’m very pessimistic when a pitcher like Chris Young throws up a stat line of 6 innings pitched and three runs. Although a quality start, Young finds a way to lose leads and games for his teams. However, I can not help but feel optimistic about Matt Harvey tonight. Maybe it’s because Harvey’s change up is still faster than Young’s fastball.
Matt Harvey is the future number three of the rotation in the future when the team parts ways with Johan Santana, and possibly R.A. Dickey. The Mets are banking on Harvey to follow Jon Niese and Zack Wheeler, this generation’s “Generation K”.
Back to my Young-Harvey comparison. With Harvey in the plans for the future and no record of an injury-ridden past, Harvey is just as productive, if not more, productive than Chris Young.
2012 was different, the results will be the same as 2010 and 2011, however this year had a sprinkle of hope heading into the All Star break before the air was let out of the balloon. 2012 will be known as an evaluation year, another year in which the organization must see what talent they have and how they will approach the off-season with the remaining pieces they see keeping.
But for now, it’s crucial that the Mets stick with Harvey and see what they can make of the young gun so that they can work with him in the off-season and have him compete for an opening day roster spot in 2013.
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