Yankees Offense Comes Alive After Matt Harvey Exits Early
Matt Harvey was cruising for the New York Mets on Sunday night, but since the team needs to baby his arm he was pulled after five innings and then the New York Yankees offense found their groove. The Yankees posted five runs in the sixth inning off of reliever Hansel Robles, including a three run home run from Dustin Ackley to knock Robles out of the game.
Before the game on Sunday night, Mets manager Terry Collins told ESPN that Harvey had a definite innings limit and Harvey was aware of that number.
“When he reaches the innings count, he’s out, whether he has thrown 40 pitches or 85 pitches.”
Collins didn’t divulge the number before the game, but it appears the magic number was five. The Collins quote is odd because most people believe that the amount of pitches and the number of stressful pitches that are needed are more important than the innings total.
Harvey allowed just one hit and one walk over his five frames while striking out seven. Even with that performance Matt had shade thrown at him by many Mets fans on Twitter. Here are a couple of examples that are fit to print here.
Thank you @MattHarvey33 for allowing your innings limit fiasco to play a bigger part in games than you do. SMH.
— Beebo (@RealBeeboLand) September 21, 2015
There was even a rumor going around Twitter that Harvey was in the clubhouse blocking people on Twitter while his teammates were still playing the game.
Meanwhile the Yankees had to be delighted when Harvey exited the ballgame. They had to be even happier with the performance of C.C. Sabathia. The big lefty struggled through the first inning, but held the Mets to just one run. After the first, Sabathia settled down and pitched five more solid innings and picked up a well-deserved win. The Yankees are trying to hunt down the Toronto Blue Jays for the lead in the American League East and Sunday’s win cut Toronto’s lead to just 2 1/2 games. The Yankees and Blue Jays start a three game series against one another on Monday.
The Mets still have a six game lead over the Washington Nationals in the N.L. East, but Washington has won three straight games and the two teams still have a three game series to play in New York to close out the season. If Washington can somehow make those games matter, then the Mets dream season could quickly become a nightmare. If things turn sour Harvey will be the first person people lay the blame on. It may not be time to panic for the New York Mets and Matt Harvey, but when you haven’t made the playoffs in nine years you might not want to think a playoff spot is a guaranteed thing.
[Image by Greg Fiume/Getty Images]
