New York Mets Morning News: Harvey Strong, Mets Lose, 2013 Schedule Released

Another game, another loss. Don't you love meaningful September baseball? It was a Matt Harvey start though, and that's something that should excite most Mets fans. Harvey was solid again in the 2-0 loss (box score), and I think we're all excited about the prospect of at least five more seasons of Matt Harvey starts.

Terry Collins certainly seems willing to pencil Harvey into the 2013 rotation, and that's just fine by me. It seems like it's been ages since we didn't have major question marks about the back end of the rotation during the winter, but frankly it just doesn't seem pressing at this point.

Daniel Murphy missed last night's game with a sore back, and Ronny Cedeno left the game in the fifth as well. I haven't yet seen an update on either injury, but hopefully one of the pair will be good to go for Friday.

We've been struggling lately, but there's always a silver lining to struggles like that. Checking in on the reverse standings would see the Mets sitting in the top ten of next June's draft.

Here's a video of some Mets fans coming together for an important cause: saving Keith Hernandez's moustache.

Yesterday at AA:

James gave us a complete recap of the Mets sixth straight loss. We have an off night tonight so it won't get any worse, and hopefully Jon Niese can turn that losing streak around tomorrow.

The 2013 schedule was released yesterday. We had some Mets-related highlights for you here, and Baseball Nation had some more general highlights as well.

Around the NL East:

We'll start the day with happy news, as the Braves lost again as well. They've still got a long way to go to miss out on the wild card, but it's sure fun to watch their fans start to worry about doing it twice.

The Phillies, on the other hand, have been making up loads of ground. They won again last night, and they moved to within just 3 games of the second wild card.

Marlins fans still had a reason to watch the loss to the Phillies as well. That reason? Mike Giancarlo Stanton.

Around MLB:

Before the season, many people assumed one of the wild cards would go to the second place team in the AL West. That's still looking possible, but it's looking more and more likely that it will be the A's that win that spot. The A's beat the Angels to increase their gap over the big spending rivals from further south.

The AL East might be the most exciting race in baseball this season, and for a change it doesn't involve the Red Sox. It did last night though, as they failed in an attempt to play spoiler for the Yankees.

The Red Sox failure to beat the Yanks didn't matter quite as much, as the Orioles managed to win as well. Baltimore may be the best story in baseball this year, and I'd imagine they'll start hearing loud cheers on the road pretty soon as they attempt to win the AL East.

The Tigers and White Sox will likely need to win their division to get into the playoffs. The Tigers gained some ground yesterday as they beat the Sox 8-6. Chris Sale and Justin Verlander will face off today with the Tigers looking to draw level with the Sox.

Grant Brisbee took a look at some things we've learned about the second wild card thus far. This gets a link just due to the use of Mr. Met in the photo.

Finally for today, John Sickels has been reviewing the MLB draft by round. The 14th saw the Mets go overslot, and I'm still excited by Chris Flexen.