NEW YORK — He took the mound to begin the series, determined to set a tone. He left the mound nearly eight innings later, with the fans chanting his name and his teammates ready to sing his praise.
Matt Harvey could write an online opus about the way he pitched Saturday night in Game 1 against the Chicago Cubs, expect this time, there’s no need to clear anything up. Anyone who saw him pitch the New York Mets to their 4-2 NLCS-opening win already understands.
“I think anyone who had any doubts about his toughness or desire to pitch should take notice of tonight,” Mets first baseman Michael Cuddyer said.
And anyone who had any question why Harvey ignored the innings-limit warnings and chose to pitch in October only had to watch and listen Saturday. Perhaps Harvey is taking a risk (he went over the 200-inning mark for the season, in his first year back from Tommy John surgery), but this night was a huge part of the reward.
“I wanted to go out there,” he said. “I wanted this game bad.”
It showed in his demeanor. It showed in his body language. It showed most of all in his performance, in a nine-pitch first inning and three more perfect innings that followed. Matched up against Jon Lester, the $155 million Cubs starter with the fine postseason resume, Harvey was the No. 1 starter he has always wanted to be.
He ended up working two outs into the eighth inning, deep enough for Mets manager Terry Collins to avoid his shaky middle relief and hand the ball directly to closer Jeurys Familia. He gave up two runs and just four hits while striking out nine.
He stifled a Cubs lineup that looked unbeatable in the division series against the St. Louis Cardinals. Kyle Schwarber eventually homered on Harvey’s final pitch, but for the first four innings, the homer-happy Cubs never even hit a ball to the outfield.
The Mets actually out-homered the Cubs in Game 1, with Daniel Murphy hitting another one and Travis d’Arnaud sending one into the Home Run Apple behind the center field fence. The Mets showed off defensively, too, with Yoenis Cespedes throwing Starlin Castro out at the plate in the fifth and Murphy ending the game with a fine play to rob Tommy La Stella.
“It was a complete team win, and it was nice to be able to contribute,” Harvey said.
Nice words, but Harvey did more than contribute. This was his game, the type of game he always expected to pitch and the type of game the Mets always expected him to pitch.
None of it should have been a surprise, and none of it would have even been a question, except for that innings-limit mess six weeks back.
Remember that agent Scott Boras said the Mets were putting Harvey “in peril” if they allowed him to go past 180 innings this season. Remember that a day after Boras went public, Harvey suggested he agreed with his agent and would stick to the limits. Remember the storm that caused among Mets fans and in the New York tabloids, forcing Harvey to write his own story the next day in Derek Jeter’s Players’ Tribune.
“I will pitch in the playoffs,” Harvey wrote, seeking to calm the storm and regain his reputation.
The questions persisted all the way through to the end of the regular season. Maybe he would start just one game per round, or just one game total. Maybe he would pitch with limits.
“That time hurt him,” Cuddyer said. “Not physically, but it hurt his heart.”
Harvey started Game 3 of the division series. He got the win that night against the Los Angeles Dodgers, but he allowed three runs in five innings and wasn’t satisfied.
He wanted more. He wanted a game like Saturday.
“You could tell,” Cuddyer said. “He had it in his eyes when he went to take the mound. He wasn’t going to be denied. He was on board.”
He was still on board when Dexter Fowler lined a ball off his right triceps to begin the sixth inning. Collins got the bullpen ready just in case, but Harvey finished that inning and one more, and then he told Collins he wanted to pitch the eighth as well.
Harvey didn’t finish the eighth, but he didn’t need to. The game was already won, and Harvey’s reputation was already restored.
The same fans who had ripped him on Twitter and talk radio were chanting his name.
“Har-vey! Har-vey!”
“I think after everything that’s happened, I think the biggest thing was really staying focused on what I had to do,” Harvey said. “I know there’s been a lot of speculation or talk going around the past month, but I kind of wanted to kind of stop all that.”
Consider it stopped, and consider it a given that Harvey will pitch again in this NLCS if the Mets need him. General manager Sandy Alderson said Friday the team was still undecided, but barring an injury or a four-game Mets sweep, it’s unimaginable now to think Harvey wouldn’t start.
You saw him Saturday. He was Matt Harvey, with all of the good that goes along with it and none of the bad.
Any questions?
Danny Knobler covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.
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