WASHINGTON — Matt Harvey was pulled from the bottom of the Hudson River last week, but the Mets have no intention of fishing for him in the Potomac on Tuesday.
The former Mets ace will try to revive his season, with a rematch against a Nationals team that hammered him Thursday at Citi Field.
In that start, Harvey allowed a career-high nine runs (six of which were earned) and was removed after only 2 ²/₃ innings. The start was the shortest of his career.
Overall, Harvey is 3-6 with a 5.77 ERA and hasn’t pitched into the seventh inning this season.
Manager Terry Collins was encouraged Harvey wanted the ball for this next start, after he was given the option to skip a turn in the rotation to regroup mentally. The righty threw a simulated game on Saturday.
“My expectations are that he takes what he did the other day on the side in that BP session and takes it on the mound and not worries too much about locating,” Collins said before the Mets’ 7-1 victory over the Nationals. “Hey, throw it. Get out there and throw it.
“If he throws the ball like he’s capable of, he will get us through some innings. I’m hoping more than anything that he goes and gives us quality innings just to raise his confidence, because once that confidence starts to come up, he’s going to be fine.”
Team brass could have given the start to Logan Verrett or placed Harvey on the disabled list and promoted a pitcher from Triple-A Las Vegas, but the Mets were encouraged by the fact Harvey wanted the ball.
The manager has cited Harvey’s workload — he logged 216 innings in 2015, his first season back from Tommy John surgery — as most likely the biggest factor in the pitcher’s inconsistency.
In his last start, Harvey watched Daniel Murphy smash an 0-2 curveball for a two-run homer before the Nationals turned the game into a runaway in the third. Harvey wasn’t helped by his defense in that final inning — Asdrubal Cabrera booted a grounder and Michael Conforto took a bad route on a drive to left field. Even so, Harvey allowed several loud hits.
“Nobody is more frustrated than him, but just the fact he said, ‘Look, I’m not backing away from this,’ which a lot of guys would have — guys would have taken that out,” Collins said.
“He had a shot to. He could have said, ‘I need to get away from this,’ but he didn’t. He said, ‘I’ve got to get back out there and I’ve got to pitch. That’s the only way I’m going to get through this.’ I thought that was the most impressive part of it.”
Harvey had his best start of the season May 8 in San Diego, allowing two runs over six innings and striking out 10, but followed that with a clunker in Colorado (11 hits allowed) before the National disaster last week.
“Then, to have him throw two days after he pitched, to get back on the mound and throw it, and basically coming back in two more days to pitch in a game, tells you he’s bound and determined to get better,” Collins said.