He may have been pitching under a microscope, but Matt Harvey looked fantastic in the first start of his major league career. Harvey's dominance put the Mets' awful record since the All Star break on hold, at least for one night, as he mowed down eleven Diamondbacks via strikeout. Harvey didn't allow a run in 5.1 innings of work, and two of his three walks in the start came when he appeared to run out of gas in the sixth inning.
It certainly didn't hurt that the Mets scored three runs during Harvey's start, two of which came in the top of the first inning on a Scott Hairston double. They were up against Wade Miley, a left-handed starter who has had a very good year for Arizona.
And while the bullpen made the game a lot more stressful than it needed to be in the end, it allowed one run in 3.2 innings of work, which isn't all that bad. Jon Rauch, who allowed the run, Tim Byrdak, and Bobby Parnell all struggled a bit in their outings, but Josh Edgin retired all five batters he faced.
The series resumes at 9:40 pm EDT tonight with Jon Niese on the hill for the Mets and Josh Collmenter starting for the Diamondbacks.
SB Nation Coverage
* Traditional Recap
* Boxscore
* Amazin' Avenue Gamethread
* AZ Snake Pit Gamethread
Win Probability Added
Big winners: Matt Harvey, +21.5% WPA, Josh Edgin, +16.5% WPA, Scottt Hairston, +15.1% WPA
Big losers: David Wright, -9.0 WPA% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Scott Hairston's two-run double in the first, +13.6% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Paul Goldschmidt's double in the eighth, -10.2% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: +48.7% WPA
Total batter WPA: +1.3% WPA
GWRBI!: Scott Hairston