Matt Harvey pitched into the seventh inning Saturday in Cincinnati to help the Mets beat the Reds and claim their first National League East title since 2006. It was a surprisingly lengthy outing from the 26-year-old right-hander, who’s been the subject of a very public and drawn out workload controversy throughout September.
He got lifted after five innings of scoreless, one-hit ball last Sunday in an eventual loss to the Yankees, and that didn’t sit well with anybody. Harvey included.
John Harper of the New York Daily News digs deeper into why and how the plan changed …
Terry Collins was in the outfield during batting practice at Citi Field last Tuesday when Matt Harvey approached him and said, “I need to talk to you.”
“The way he said it,’’ the Mets’ manager recalled, “I knew something was eating at him.”
As it turned out, that was the start of a new Harvey plan, prescribed not by Scott Boras but by the Mets’ pitcher himself.
“I think Matt got frustrated by what happened in the Yankee game,” Collins told the Daily News late Saturday. “He got caught in the middle of this thing, and I’ve said all along that he’s a good teammate, but some guys in that clubhouse got turned off by it. And I can understand that.”
So apparently the reins are off. Or have at least been loosened.
Harvey will now prepare to face the Dodgers in the NLDS.