World Series 2015: Matt Harvey gets ball for Mets in Game 1

Marc Lancaster

World Series 2015: Matt Harvey gets ball for Mets in Game 1 image

It has been nearly two months since controversy bubbled up over Matt Harvey's role with the playoff-bound Mets, with the one-time ace of the staff questioning how much more he'd be able to pitch this season.

Now Harvey has blown past what he had considered his 180-inning limit for the season and is set to start Game 1 of the World Series on Tuesday night.

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Mets manager Terry Collins laid out his rotation Saturday, and Harvey's assignment was a mild surprise. But the manager liked the idea of Harvey pitching in Kansas City and Jacob deGrom following a night later with just a bit more rest under his belt. They will be followed by Noah Syndergaard in Game 3 and Steven Matz in Game 4 at Citi Field.

“Matt was going to pitch next, so I don’t want to give him five more extra days if I can help it, and Jake can use an extra day,” Collins said, via the Daily News. “We see the benefits of how he pitches when he’s a little better rested this time of year. We liked that. We liked the fact that Noah is going to be at home.

“One of the discussions was going to Kansas City, they play well in their park. But we think we’ll run two pretty good pitchers at them and hopefully get one or two. We thought it would help Jacob, the extra rest.”

DeGrom, who last started Oct. 20 in Game 3 of the NLCS, has pitched well with extra rest this season. In five starts on at least six days' rest, he has a 2.63 ERA with six walks and 32 strikeouts in 27 1/3 innings.

Harvey, meanwhile, is sitting at 202 innings on the season heading into the World Series, which will see him get a maximum of two more starts. That could make for a hefty 2015 innings total coming off Tommy John surgery, but at this point, all previous discussion about how such a workload might affect Harvey long-term is off the table.

Marc Lancaster

Marc Lancaster Photo

Marc Lancaster joined The Sporting News in 2022 after working closely with TSN for five years as an editor for the company now known as Stats Perform. He previously worked as an editor at The Washington Times, AOL’s FanHouse.com and the old CNNSportsIllustrated.com, and as a beat writer covering the Tampa Bay Rays, Cincinnati Reds, and University of Georgia football and women’s basketball. A Georgia graduate, he has been a Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2013.