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Matt Harvey's seventeenth start of the season was one of the best he's ever thrown in the big leagues. His eighteenth wasn't terrible, but he appeared to run out of gas late in the start and went from not having given up a run to giving up five runs pretty quickly.
RESULTS
Start | Opponent | IP | R | K | BB | Pit. (K) | GS |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
17 | Nationals | 7.0 | 1 | 11 | 0 | 109 (70) | 78 |
18 | Diamondbacks | 6.0 | 5 | 9 | 3 | 110 (74) | 40 |
PITCHf/x DATA (via Brooks Baseball)
Start 17, vs. Nationals
Pitch Type | Avg Speed | Max Speed | Count | Strikes / % | Whiffs / % |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
FA (Fastball) | 97.04 | 100.07 | 61 | 39 / 63.93% | 7 / 11.48% |
SI (Sinker) | 97.30 | 99.10 | 4 | 3 / 75.00% | 0 / 0.00% |
CH (Changeup) | 87.80 | 89.54 | 7 | 5 / 71.43% | 1 / 14.29% |
SL (Slider) | 90.70 | 92.63 | 16 | 10 / 62.50% | 3 / 18.75% |
CU (Curveball) | 85.37 | 88.82 | 21 | 13 / 61.90% | 5 / 23.81% |
For the third straight start, Harvey hit triple digits with his fastball, which he threw the majority of the time with great success. He hardly used his changeup, but both his curveball and slider were very effective, each generating several swings-and-misses. The plot below illustrates Harvey's whiffs, which came high in the zone, right in the middle of the zone, and well below it.
GIFs
Strikeout 1: Denard Span, swinging
Strikeout 2: Anthony Rendon, swinging
Strikeout 3: Adam LaRoche, swinging
Strikeout 4: Jayson Werth, swinging
Strikeout 5: Ross Detwiler, swinging
Strikeout 6: Ryan Zimmerman, looking
Strikeout 7: Jayson Werth, swinging
Strikeout 8: Steve Lombardozzi, swinging
Strikeout 9: Anthony Rendon, swinging
Strikeout 10: Adam LaRoche, swinging
Strikeout 11: Jayson Werth, swinging
Start 18, vs. Diamondbacks
Pitch Type | Avg Speed | Max Speed | Count | Strikes / % | Whiffs / % |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
FA (Fastball) | 97.11 | 99.22 | 56 | 38 / 67.86% | 7 / 12.50% |
SI (Sinker) | 96.92 | 98.36 | 7 | 4 / 57.14% | 3 / 42.86% |
CH (Changeup) | 88.28 | 89.46 | 11 | 7 / 63.64% | 2 / 18.18% |
SL (Slider) | 91.08 | 93.00 | 18 | 13 / 72.22% | 8 / 44.44% |
CU (Curveball) | 84.72 | 87.27 | 18 | 12 / 66.67% | 2 / 11.11% |
Harvey didn't hit 100 mph in the start, but he came pretty close as his fastball was clocked just about 99 mph. Once again, he relied most heavily on his fastball, but he mixed his changeup in a bit more frequently to go with the curves and sliders. Every pitch he threw was fantastic in terms of generating whiffs, but his slider was the best with a staggering 44.44 percent swinging strike rate. Once again, the plot below shows swings-and-misses all over the strike zone. The results in this start weren't as good, but Harvey was just as dominant for most of it as he was in his start against the Nationals.
GIFs
Strikeout 1: Jason Kubel, looking
Strikeout 2: Cody Ross, swinging
Strikeout 3: Cliff Pennington, swinging
Strikeout 4: Randall Delgado, swinging
Strikeout 5: Eric Chavez, swinging
Strikeout 6: Jason Kubel, swinging
Strikeout 7: Aaron Hill, swinging
Strikeout 8: Jason Kubel, swinging
Strikeout 9: Randall Delgado, swinging
WHERE HARVEY RANKS IN THE NATIONAL LEAGUE
With the slight bump in Harvey's ERA in his most recent start, he fell a few spots in the rankings among National League starting pitchers. In every other category below, he remains at an elite level. The fact that Harvey has the thirteenth-best walk rate is very impressive given the fact that he leads in the league in swinging strike rate and strikeout rate.
ERA | FIP | K% | BB% | SwStr% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Harvey | 2.27 | 2.09 | 29.8 | 5.7 | 12.8 |
NL Rank | 4th | 1st | 1st | 13th | 1st |
NL Avg. SP | 3.91 | 3.87 | 18.9 | 7.2 | 8.7 |
HARVEY IN METS HISTORICAL CONTEXT
With his seventeenth and eighteenth starts in the books, Harvey is still very close to the pace set by three former MEts pitchers in their Cy Young seasons.
Pitcher (Year) | IP | ERA | K | BB | GSc |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Matt Harvey (2013) | 123.0 | 2.27 | 141 | 27 | 66 |
R.A. Dickey (2012) | 125.0 | 2.66 | 127 | 28 | 63 |
Dwight Gooden (1985) | 138.2 | 1.75 | 137 | 39 | 69 |
Tom Seaver (1973) | 144.2 | 2.05 | 123 | 35 | 68 |