Mets impress in win over Padres, but Matt Harvey doesn’t
New York Mets starting pitcher Matt Harvey follows the flight of a ball hit by the San Diego Padres in an MLB baseball game at Citi Field on Tuesday, May 23, 2017. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Sure, there’s plenty to worry about as the Mets attempt to make something out of a season that has nearly crumbled before it could truly begin.
Following Tuesday night’s 9-3 thrashing of the Padres, manager Terry Collins scrambled to put a smiley face on another middling outing by Matt Harvey. And despite his team holding a big lead, the manager summoned Jerry Blevins for his league-leading 26th appearance of the season, not exactly a ringing endorsement for a bullpen that has been left in tatters. Yet, it’s clear that Collins isn’t sweating at least one thing on his roster.
Michael Conforto vowed before the season to recapture the form that once vaulted him straight from Double-A Binghamton and into the World Series. And the slugging outfielder continued to make good on that promise, going 3-for-4, including a pair of solo homers.
With 13 homers, he has already eclipsed his total of 12 from a year before, a lost season in which he burst from the starting gate only to crash land in the minor leagues.
“Knowing I put the work in makes it easier to just come out here and play,” said Conforto, who knocked in four runs, a career high.
The Mets formed a conga line in the first, when Conforto led off with the first of his two homers. Later in the frame, he lined a two-run single to the opposite field, making him the first in franchise history to collect three first-inning RBIs from the leadoff spot.
“It’s just a product of what I’ve been working on — using the whole field and taking what the pitchers gives me,” said Conforto, who helped the Mets (19-24) to their third win in four games.
When the merry-go-round finally stopped, the Mets had sent 11 men to the plate and scored seven runs, the most for them in any first inning since 2004.
For Harvey, it should have been the ideal confidence-builder.
In his first Citi Field start since his post Cinco de Mayo no show, he was spotted a one touchdown lead against the owners of the lowest team batting average in the National League (.219). Instead, in a five-inning slog, he looked almost unrecognizable.
The boxscore projected the illusion of respectability: five innings, two runs, three hits, two of them bullets. But the reality proved far less flattering. Though he struck out six, Harvey walked four. At times, he missed his targets so badly that catcher Rene Rivera could barely get his mitt on the ball.
Matt Harvey delivea pitch against the San Diego Padres during the first inning in an MLB baseball game at Citi Field on Tuesday, May 23, 2017. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Even Harvey later admitted that his outing was “a little shaky.” But both he and Collins looked for positives on a night in which the righty benefited from some good fortune. Of course, he wasn’t the only one.
The opening rally in the first was extended by a jam shot against the shift by Jay Bruce, who entered play with three hits in his previous 30 at-bats. Later in the inning, Wilmer Flores fought off a pitch that was in on his hands, rolling one softly to the vacated right side of the infield to make it 3-0.
Lucas Duda followed by hammering a two-run double, the first of his three hits on a three-RBI night.
But there was nothing fluky about Conforto’s at-bats. After knocking in three runs in the first, he added a solo shot in the fourth.
“He’s in one of those grooves that great hitters get into,” Collins said. “You don’t want to mess with him.”
