Matt Harvey had an up-and-down World Series debut, striking out just two batters and allowing three runs, five hits and two walks in six innings in a no-decision in Tuesday’s Game 1 loss to the Royals.
“I didn’t feel good, I didn’t have my best stuff,” said Harvey, who threw 53 of his 80 pitches for strikes. “Obviously, from the first pitch on I knew I had to mix things in and try to keep them off balance, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to do that in the sixth inning.”
Harvey labored through the first two innings, giving up a leadoff inside-the-park home run to Alcides Escobar in the first inning, which was the result of miscommunication between outfielders Michael Conforto and Yoenis Cespedes. In the second, he pitched into and out of a two-on, one-out jam. He then cruised through the third, fourth and fifth innings, retiring 11 batters in a row before running into trouble in the sixth inning, when he allowed three hits, including Mike Moustakas‘s RBI single that tied the game at 3-3.
“I thought when we started the game he wasn’t real sharp,” manager Terry Collins said. “His command was off a little bit. I thought he got a little bit better groove. As we’ve seen, he had to work so hard to get out of the first couple of innings that late in the game his ball started coming up, and that’s when I thought it was done.”
Matthew Cerrone
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I was rather impressed with how well he made adjustments throughout the night. He turned away from his fastball early, and started mixing his pitches really well, while keeping KC’s hitters off balance. According to Inside Edge, he threw just 30 fastballs out of 80 pitches, which was a career low. In the regular season, he threw 60 percent fastballs. He obviously read the scouting reports, because he pitched backwards, in and out, and did what he needed to do to navigate a deep and steady Royals lineup. I mean, when Alex Gordon is batting eighth, you know it’s going to be a stressful night. And with the designated hitter, the Royals feature a longer, more circular lineup than Harvey faced against the Dodgers and Cubs.
Harvey has said he’s been more strategic with his fastball, which has not been as hot as it was earlier in the season. This is to be expected, seeing as he’s thrown 208 innings a year after throwing zero. He spent all of 2014 rehabbing from Tommy John surgery and he’d never thrown more than 180 innings in a season. Now, he’s here in October, in the World Series, after spending the last six weeks totally out of a rhythm, throwing on short rest, long rest, skipping starts and, in some cases, not knowing if the Mets will play beyond tomorrow. In that context, I think he’s been outstanding this postseason. To expect him to be at the top of his game is totally unrealistic. These guys are people, not machines. He likes to think of himself as Batman, not the Terminator. I’m sure he expects more from himself. I probably expected the same — at the start of the game. It would be great to see him go out and dominate. But, I’m also impressed with how hard he’s pushing through. I’m sure none of this is easy. Unfortunately, it’s only going to get more difficult.
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