New York Mets: Matt Harvey fans eight in start against the Marlins
Matt Harvey strikes out eight for the New York Mets in Thursday start against the Marlins.
As Spring Training works through its final two weeks, now is the time that rosters start to take shape. For the New York Mets, it’s of the utmost importance that the starting rotation gets into form. We know that Noah Syndergaard and Jacob deGrom are starting the first two games, how is the rest of the rotation set to look?
He may not be the “Dark Night” anymore, but Matt Harvey is proving that he may be able to come back and contribute to the team after all. We all know the struggles he has had since coming back from his surgeries. His gutty performance in the 2015 World Series against the Royals seems like it was a lifetime ago.
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As of late, Harvey has begun to show flashes of his old self. In a three run, five inning performance against the Marlins on Thursday, the artist formerly known as the “Dark Knight” struck out the final five batters he faced and eight over the entire outing.
In 14.2 innings in March, Harvey has fanned 16 batters. In three out of four of his outings this Spring, he has allowed three runs or less. The ERA is higher obviously because of the reduced number of innings pitched (5.52 ERA).
On Thursday against the Marlins, Harvey had a rough inning, giving up three runs in the third inning. However he made the adjustments to finish up strong. Here is what Harvey had to say about it:
"“I felt all right,” Harvey said. “I obviously felt good in the first two innings and got out of whack in the third. I kind of yanked everything open. My front side was leaking, so everything was flat. Then I gave up a couple of hits and walked the pitcher, which is not ideal. Things kind of unraveled.”"
That doesn’t seem like it’s important, but read it again. Notice the technical elements he’s talking about in describing his performance. The quickest way for any of us to correct our mistakes is to understand what we are doing wrong. This appears to be the Dave Eiland influence as personally, I can’t recall Matt talking like this at all in the past.
If Harvey understands what he is doing wrong in the middle of a start, he can more easily fix it. That is the difference between salvaging a start after one bad inning or letting it spin out of control.
Next: Matz getting things together
Having a Matt Harvey that is closer to his early career form can only help the Mets. It seems as if Dave Eiland is already having an influence on these pitchers. That influence has been good. All we can do now is hope that it carries over into the regular season.