Matt Harvey is miles away from Stephen Strasburg, and miles from being an ace

Tom Gatto

Matt Harvey is miles away from Stephen Strasburg, and miles from being an ace image

No, Matt Harvey is not better than Stephen Strasburg. That's painfully obvious after Thursday night's developments at Citi Field.

Harvey allowed nine runs (six earned) in 2 2/3 innings to the Nationals in the worst start of his major league career. Seven of those runs came in the third inning when he couldn't work around shoddy New York defense. He took the loss in a 9-1 Nats triumph.

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The outing represents rock bottom in a season that is increasingly looking lost for him. 

Worse for Harvey and Mets fans, Strasburg was his mound opponent Thursday. The symbolism could not be clearer. Three years ago, the Flushing faithful broke out in a full-throated chant of "Harvey's better!" when Strasburg was losing to Harvey and the Mets.

The clip was included in the intro to SNY's broadcast Thursday. Maybe the MASN folks will find a way to tweak the Mets with it now.

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They might not be able to do it when the teams meet in D.C. next week, though. Mets manager Terry Collins wouldn't commit after the game to having Harvey pitch in that series, although he insisted he still has trust in his nominal ace.

A skipped start would be understandable, given Harvey's struggles. His bottom-line numbers are awful: a 3-6 record, a 5.77 ERA and a 1.66 WHIP in 48 1/3 innings over nine starts.

"I'm not happy about it," Harvey said of his work in 2016. "Nobody else is."

Much has happened in the three years since the chant to get us to this point. Harvey had Tommy John surgery, then pitched 216 innings (including postseason) last year in his return to the mound. Has the workload taken that great a physical toll? Harvey's fastball is only 1 mph slower on average this year, according to FanGraphs, but his command has been subpar, as Nats studio analyst Ray Knight pointed out.

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Harvey insisted he's fine physically ("It's not that," he said), but Collins believes health is an issue.

"He went above and beyond (last season) and I don't think he's recovered from it," Collins said.

Nats outfielder Bryce Harper, who ended his career oh-fer against Harvey with a line-drive single, wonders about the fatigue factor, too .

"It kind of goes back to, what, he had surgery (in 2013) and then he forced 230 innings?" Harper said. "I feel bad for him. He comes off the mound and gets booed. I work out with him in the offseason. Being around him a little bit when working out, he works his tail off. You never want to see a guy do that. All the best to him."

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Collins also referenced the blood clots in Harvey's bladder that surfaced late in spring training and put Harvey's opening night start in doubt. In fact, Collins said pitching coach Dan Warthen raised the issue Thursday, telling Collins, "Ever since he had that thing in spring training, he hasn't been the same guy." 

All that said, the disabled list isn't an option unless the Mets can find an actual injury, so some time off appears to be the most realistic course of action.

Harvey's FIP coming into the game was 3.35, so some might be inclined to say Harvey has been unlucky this year. If you saw him serve up batting practice to the Nats in that third inning, you'd know luck isn't really a factor; he just isn't  good right now.

Strasburg, meanwhile, has become a fairly reliable top-of-the-rotation starter, if not a full-fledged horse. As a result, he has earned the security of a seven-year, $175 million contract extension signed earlier this month.

Harvey's nine-figure payday is becoming less and less assured. He can become a free agent after the 2018 season, so there's loads of time to rebuild value. First, though, Harvey needs to rebuild his confidence, which surely is at its lowest point after what Strasburg's team did to him.

"When you see confidence as banged-up as his is right now, it needs to be fixed," Collins said.

The first step in the repair might be briefly stepping off the mound.

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.