Matt Harvey flashes back to better days in Angels debut

Tom Gatto

Matt Harvey flashes back to better days in Angels debut image

Matt Harvey is starting to feel a little like his old ace self again.

Harvey was sharp Friday in his first start of 2019, which also served as his Angels debut. The former Mets All-Star held the A's to two runs over six innings; both runs came on Khris Davis' home run in the sixth. He threw 58 of his 89 pitches (65.2 percent) for strikes.

Of greater importance to Harvey was how he worked out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the bottom of the fifth to keep the game scoreless.

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"I think the big test was that fifth inning," Harvey told reporters, including Maria Torres of the Los Angeles Times, after the Angels' 6-2 comeback victory (Harvey received a no-decision). "To get through that with no runs and strike a guy out (Ramon Laureano) and get a weak ground ball for a double play (against Nick Hundley), that's what I remember from when I was good. Being able to get out of jams like that, that’s definitely a positive."

Harvey, 30, hasn't been good since 2015 when he helped pitch the Mets into the World Series and was poised to become a Fall Classic hero. He flashed some of his "Dark Knight" form after the Mets traded him to the Reds last May, but he still finished the season with a 4.94 overall ERA (4.57 FIP) and a career-high 27 home runs allowed.

The Angels signed Harvey to a one-year, $11 million contract in late December with the idea of having him fill a spot in the middle of the rotation. He's LA's No. 2 starter to begin the season because Andrew Heaney (elbow) is on the injured list. 

Harvey wasn't fully No. 1-caliber on Friday (three walks, one strikeout), but he pitched like it in spots.

"That’s a good lineup there and he went through them pretty easily there for a little bit," Angels catcher Jonathan Lucroy, who played for the A's last season, told reporters, per Torres. 

For now, that will have to be good enough.

Tom Gatto

Tom Gatto Photo

Tom Gatto joined The Sporting News as a senior editor in 2000 after 12 years at The Herald-News in Passaic, N.J., where he served in a variety of roles including sports editor, and a brief spell at APBNews.com in New York, where he worked as a syndication editor. He is a 1986 graduate of the University of South Carolina.