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As you may have already heard, Matt Harvey made his major league debut for the Mets last night and threw five-and-one-third very impressive innings against the Arizona Diamondbacks. With eleven strikeouts, Harvey broke the Mets' record for strikeouts in a major league debut. The previous record was eight, held by Tom Seaver and Bill Denehy, who accomplished the feat three days apart in 1967.
Harvey was just the fourteenth pitcher in team history to record six or more strikeouts in his major league debut, and his start last night compares favorably to most of the others.
| Player | Date | IP | H | ER | SO | BB | GSc |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Matt Harvey | 2012-07-26 | 5.1 | 3 | 0 | 11 | 3 | 70 |
| Bill Denehy | 1967-04-16 | 6.1 | 3 | 2 | 8 | 6 | 61 |
| Tom Seaver | 1967-04-13 | 5.1 | 6 | 2 | 8 | 4 | 52 |
| Masato Yoshii | 1998-04-05 | 7.0 | 3 | 0 | 7 | 1 | 77 |
| Randy Tate | 1975-04-14 | 8.0 | 5 | 3 | 7 | 3 | 64 |
| Brent Strom | 1972-07-31 | 6.2 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 4 | 67 |
| Paul Wilson | 1996-04-04 | 6.0 | 6 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 52 |
| Jason Isringhausen | 1995-07-17 | 7.0 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 2 | 69 |
| Jason Jacome | 1994-07-02 | 6.0 | 8 | 2 | 6 | 2 | 52 |
| Ron Darling | 1983-09-06 | 6.1 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 64 |
| Brent Gaff | 1982-07-07 | 7.2 | 8 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 61 |
| Roy Lee Jackson | 1977-09-13 | 5.2 | 6 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 48 |
| Les Rohr | 1967-09-19 | 6.0 | 6 | 2 | 6 | 3 | 53 |
| Rob Gardner | 1965-09-01 | 3.0 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 1 | 28 |
Harvey's game score of 70 ranks second among the debuts, trailing Masato Yoshii, who did not strike out as many as Harvey but threw 1.2 innings more — hence the better number.
But Harvey's success in his debut did not only come from the mound. He went 2-for-2 with a single and a double, and according to Elias, he is the first pitcher since 1900 to record ten or more strikeouts while notching two hits in a big league debut.