Redemption! The Mets pulled off a 1-0 Memorial Day win over the White Sox on the shoulders of Matt Harvey‘s breakout performance. The righty, who’s struggled all season, was masterful, throwing seven scoreless innings, allowing just two hits and a walk, punctuated by six strikeouts. Harvey looked fluid in his delivery and confident on the hill. As usual, his teammates offered no early run support and he locked horns with lefty Carlos Quintana in a hard fought pitcher’s duel that was finally interrupted by a Neil Walker solo homer in the seventh inning.
That one run proved to be all the Mets would need as Addison Reed and Jeurys Familia shut the door with two perfect innings, including a combined four strikeouts. Harvey notched his fourth win, Reed his 10th hold and Familia his 17th save of the season. The Mets now stand at 29-21, a half game behind the Nationals, who play at Philadelphia tonight.
Tomorrow night, in the second game of the three-game home set with the White Sox, we’ll see another good pitching matchup with lefty Steven Matz (7-1, 2.36 ERA) vs. righty Matt Latos (6-1, 4.06 ERA).
Until recently, only Syndergaard was both Healthy and impressive… Among the Starting Pitchers.
Over the past 10 or so games, we’ve seen Matz and deGrom establish health and performance—– today’s performance by Harvey reestablishes the formula of a stable of Big Bully Starters.
That makes everything possible!!!…… If the Starting Hammers are in place, the lineup can be modified and supplemented and retooled for a big year
The next 10-20 games are a gauge on that continued SP progress…… And a tight look at status of the positional players and the lineup….. They’re in excellent position
Interesting point. Let’s see where we are in 20 games. We will have a better gauge on Wheeler. We will know if Flores and Loney are doing anything to help the club win. And…the amateur draft will be done.
It may be nothing more than coincidence but the first game this year that Rene Rivera catches Harvey, Harvey has a good game. I’d like to see Rivera catch both Harvey and Syndergaard and day games after Plawecki has caught a night game.
Excellent point. Hadn’t thought of that.
Now we can all exhale…..Jeurys Familia had a perfect inning after two sub standard outings. He says it was a first step and it won’t mean anything unless he continues to pitch this way. Damn straight Jeureys, the team would really struggle without your excellant pitching.
Reed had a perfect inning. He is having a very good season but he is thinking of not talking to the press because they are not acknowledging his accomplishments. He just realized the press isn’t talking to him!
Neil Walker has an .837 OPS and with his 12th home run won the game. He is having a very good year. In 2015 Murphy had a very good .770 OPS so it is an accomplishment and improvement over last years production. In a year that Murphy is playing sensational, Walker should be acknowledged as a very good player also. Maybe the press will start talking to him so that the fans can know more about Murphy’s replacement.
Sarcasm is a wonderful tool to drive a point home.
Plawecki is a career .215/.285/.289 hitter with no power. He’s been brutal.
Rivera must start getting more starts. If he hits at all, he should get 80%. Problem is, he might not hit at all. But I still give him the edge of Plawecki, who needs to go down to Vegas at the earliest opportunity.
BTW, just glanced at Herrera’s numbers. .276 BA, only .320 OBP. Nice power, but: Vegas. He’s not really having an impressive year. Cecchini has been better, with higher BA and .374 OBP. I didn’t realize you could make that argument until today.
I saw yesterday also, and was shocked James. Just a few weeks ago he was at .358 and he went 4-6 the other night. How cold can he get? Has given me pause and maybe Rivera should get first shot, after all, the competition is the same…
Glad to see Ty Kelly started yesterday and even got a hit. Why does Collins do this? His team is ice cold and a kid comes up hitting .397 in the minors. He sits him for as long as possible to make sure he’s cold when he does play.
Vegas numbers. I personally don’t think Kelly can play. He’s never passed my eye test. In his first start, he struck out three times then grounded out weakly to second base. Baseball is a tough game. You have to make the most out of those rare opportunities. The best ones always do.
I got TC’s back on this one.
Kelly has his MLB Hit…probably time to move on. 6000 MILB ab’s—all respect, but he’s not an MLB part.
Mets may need to find out whether Cheech or Dilson can Contribute in a Meaningful way—- before the trade deadline. The Catching/1b/3b is an obvious work in progress. If a 2b/3b can be located (cheech or Dilson), and Walker can push to 3b or stay at 2nd…with Flores as a RH PLatoon/patch bat—that will leave the Roster Tinkering/trading isolated to Catcher and 1b.
The next 10-20 games are huge table setters for the balance of the year—who’s really healthy?…where are the needed Adds to the team….etc.
TC did Harvey no favors with a lineup that included Alejandro De Aza, Ty Kelly, and Wilmer Flores and had Eric Campbell coming off the bench in a key PH spot.
Where the hell is Loney, anyway?
On the first train in from El Paso
I hope he didn’t shoot a wild young cowboy at Rose’s Cantina…