Mets aces make their spring debuts to mostly positive results

Matt Harvey was the only starter who seemed to still be getting rid of his rust. The starter with the biggest surgery last season, showed it.

In the first inning, Harvey chewed through three St. Louis batters. He struck out the first two batters looking. He painted two fastballs against Fowler and Díaz, then got the third batter to groundout to complete the perfect first inning.

It looked as if Harvey was back, but those thoughts were quickly shattered. Johnny Peralta one-hopped a double to dead centerfield to lead off the 2nd. Harvey then hit Matt Adams and then Jose Martinez crushed a 3-0 fastball over the left field fence.

Harvey’s day was done with two outs in the 2nd inning. He finished giving up four hits and four runs. Additionally, he didn’t walk anyone and struck out three.

It was a tale of two innings for Matt Harvey Sunday afternoon. For most of his outing he sat at 91-93 MPH, occasionally touching 94 MPH.

Everyone is intrigued to see Matt Harvey’s return to the mound, due to how surprising and bad his year was last season. I think it’s safe to say he’s still getting back into the swing of things.

Harvey had good control Sunday, for the most part, which was an issue last season. Another issue was that his fastball had dropped so many miles per hour that he would leave it right over the plate.

That happened against Johnny Peralta when he crushed a double. The home run was on a 3-0 pitch, which in the regular season is almost always an automatic take. Therefore, Harvey was just throwing a usual 3-0, get-me-over fastball.

Although many Mets fans were worried after just one spring start for Harvey, there’s no need to be, it was one start. Harvey’s velocity will rise, and his confidence is slowly coming back. Neither Matt Harvey or Terry Collins were worried.

It’s still so early that Harvey has plenty of work and spring outings to still get in. His first inning was dominant. The second was different because similarly to last year, Harvey was getting behind batters and that’s what hurt him.

It was truly just one bad inning for Harvey. He will bounce back and be okay.