First of all, can I say I love the MLB’s camo uniforms and hat? On Memorial Day, the MLB players donned uniforms that honored our fallen heroes.
All it took was one solo blast out of the park by Neil Walker in the 7th inning for the New York Mets to take the first of a three-game series against the Chicago White Sox at CitiField. Walker was tied for eighth in the National League with 11 home runs coming into the game. He is second in the majors among second basemen and is 12-35 (.343) over his last 10 games.
More importantly, was that the Mets victory was also at the hands of Mets pitcher Matt Harvey, who has been struggling lately and who had a three-game losing streak coming into today’s afternoon game. If you haven’t read anything about Harvey, here is that synopsis — take him out, don’t take him out, take him out, don’t take him out. Enough!
As the Mets pitching staff continued to try and find the Matt Harvey of days gone by, they have kept him in and I’m so glad. I like Harvey. I think he’s humble and I think he’s got it in him. I’ve been saying for quite some time that part of his problem is that he’s in his own way and needs to get out of his own head sometimes. It’s a jumbled mess in there at times, I’m sure, because he is probably not only dealing with his own thoughts and self-doubt, but he’s dealing with the media’s evaluation of his performance and their comments, as well as the fans’ comments and (sometimes not-so-nice) evaluation of his performance. Well, that’s if he’s like many of us and he reads the articles and if he reads the comments on the articles and if he reads Twitter and other social media…
Don’t think it can happen? Bartolo Colon’s last bad outing was on the same day that the tabloids released a story about his personal life and his children with this woman or that woman and blah blah blah. That’s his life. I want him to pitch well and make sure we win. But that night we didn’t and I think that the story just messed up his head.
Tonight, however, Harvey stuck with the 6th inning curse that everyone talks about and he made it through, finishing seven innings pitched with a two-hitter and six strikeouts. Yeah baby, this is what I’m talking about!
After the game, the Mets faced some disheartening news as captain David Wright announced that he has a herniated disk in his neck and that he will meet with doctors on Tuesday to see what the next step is. Today was his third straight game that he missed.
“Tomorrow will be the first day that I can kind of get hands on,” Wright said in an interview. “The doctors have seen the MRI, but as far as coming up with a game plan other than the [anti-inflammatory] medicine I’ve been given, that’s what we’ll be talking about tomorrow.”
Of course, the concern is that David Wright — who looks to have a wrenched neck — will be joining Lucas Duda on the disabled list, leaving the Mets with an already limping lineup.
On Tuesday, in the second game against the Chicago White Sox, we’ll be chanting Let’s Go Matz! As Steven Matz takes the mound. Since serving up seven runs to the Marlins in his season debut, Matz is an unbelievable 7-0 with a 1.13 ERA. Matz insists that everything flows forth from his fastball command, which has been pinpoint-precise throughout the young season. He’ll face Mat Latos of the Chicago White Sox. The right-hander won for the second time in May and for the first time since May 6 by allowing three runs on five hits over six innings vs. the Tribe. Latos opened the year with four quality starts, but had not made a quality start in his past four.
It will be interesting to see if the Mets can pull themselves out of these bumps in the road and start to deliver some positive consistent results.
