The 3 best Mets moments of Matt Harvey's career

The Dark Knight, Matt Harvey, was one of the few bright spots for the New York Mets during the early 2010s and helped lead the blue and orange to the National League Pennant during the 2015 campaign.

With Harvey’s baseball career effectively over, here are the top three moments from the former first-round picks Mets' tenure.

3. Game five against Kansas City

With the Mets' backs against the wall and one game away from elimination, Harvey took the mound for game five of the World Series and delivered… until he came out for the ninth inning.

The right-hander went eight strong innings, allowing just five hits and two runs while punching out nine.

Regardless of how that game ended and what happened in the ninth inning, for eight innings, the Connecticut native was on top of the baseball world.

Unfortunately, this would ultimately be the last time Harvey was that dominant, as the former ace never quite pitched to the same level again.

2. Harvey’s Better

On a cold April night in 2013, the crowd at Citi Field shouted two simple words: Harvey’s Better.

After debuting in July the previous year, Harvey was off to a stellar start in his sophomore season and squared off against Washington Nationals young phenom Stephen Strasburg.

Harvey outdueled the former first-overall pick, pitching seven innings of one-run ball while allowing just four hits and punching out seven in an eventual 7-1 Mets victory.

While his outing two starts later against the White Sox, where Harvey pitched a complete game one-hit shutout with 12 strikeouts, was probably his best of the campaign, the moment he out-dueled one game's most promising young pitchers gave the Flushing Faithful hope that better times were on the way.

1. Starting the 2013 All-Star game 

When the Mets were selected as the host of the 2013 All-Star game, most expected the face of the franchise and one of the game's best third baseman, David Wright, to be in the starting lineup.

However, with his stellar start to the campaign, Harvey not only got named to the All-Star game but joined Wright in the starting lineup.

In what felt like a passing of the torch moment, Tom Seaver threw out the first pitch, and Harvey fired the game's official opening pitch. 

The Connecticut Native got off to a rocky start by allowing Mike Trout to lead off the game with a double and hitting Robinson Cano. Harvey would respond by retiring the next six batters he faced, including a punchout of future hall of famer Miguel Cabrera.

The Dark Knight would exit the game after two innings in what ultimately would be his best moment as a Met.