PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. _ Since we're all in a huge hurry to either anoint Matt Harvey a 20-game winner or a broken-down Dark Knight beyond repair, here's the number that should be the most meaningful takeaway from Sunday's start against the Cardinals.
Five. As in March 5.
There are plenty of others to sift through, such as 94, his peak velocity. Or four, the number of runs Harvey surrendered in 1 2/3 innings, with three coming from Jose Martinez's loud home run. Or three, his strikeout total, including when he froze Aledmys Diaz with a changeup.
If what we saw Sunday had happened during the first week of the regular season, after a full spring-training tuneup, Harvey is the Mayor of Panic City right now. And deservedly so. But we can't sound the Bat-siren after one sad trombone of an afternoon at First Data Field.
As Harvey Days go, this ranked somewhere around Groundhog Day on the buzzkill scale. For the Mets' sake, this better not mean six more weeks of ho-hum Harvey. For now, we'll buy his work-in-progress explanation. There's still another month before he takes the mound for real, and this was his first time pitching against another team since last July.
During the interim, Harvey had his chest opened up, a rib removed, and presumably the circulation to his shoulder restored. Just two years after his Tommy John surgery, which is no picnic, either. If Harvey once thought himself invincible, he speaks now like a 20-something who's had an early brush with his own mortality.
"After you've had two surgeries, you want to do everything you can to stay on the field," Harvey said after Sunday's Grapefruit League debut. "I think I've definitely realized that I need to put a lot more effort in before you go out there and just throw or go out there and run. You have to take care of your body better, and I think that's definitely changed from this year since the last."
It was a somewhat cryptic response. Was Harvey suggesting he had been negligent up to this point? Not quite. Just that he puts more of an emphasis now on injury prevention, which is only logical after what he's been through. But with all this talk about rehab and maintenance, we hardly mention Harvey as a dominant pitcher anymore. And when he's less than overpowering, as he was Sunday, he can't help but draw unsettling comparisons to his former Cy-caliber self.
Harvey also has to keep pace with rotation-mates who are all potential aces, so any slip-ups are magnified. Look what happened this weekend. Noah Syndergaard, to no one's surprise, touched 99 mph in Friday's start and hovered around 97. On Saturday, Jacob deGrom, in his first appearance since having the ulnar nerve in his elbow surgically repositioned, came out throwing an easy 97 mph against the Astros.
Naturally, we anticipated the same from Harvey because it happened before, two years ago, in his comeback from the TJ surgery. That day, an over-amped Harvey threw 99 with a razor-sharp assortment of pitches that was weeks ahead of schedule. Harvey was nothing like that '15 version Sunday. But whether that's a good or bad thing is yet to be determined.
"I think he realizes what it takes right now," Terry Collins said. "He's had a couple of bumps in the road, so he realizes this is something he's got to endure and he's got to do it the right way. He can't go charging in there. I know he just wants to find the level of mechanics that he had in the past where he can be consistent with his release point. As long as the shoulder continues to build up, you'll see an increase in velocity."
Collins said afterward that he considered scratching Harvey because of a stiff neck, but the pitcher convinced him otherwise, saying he was fine. Harvey did wear some sort of visible circulatory tape on his neck, however, and maybe he was being more careful.
"I just told him, don't be a hero," Collins said. "Go about your business. I was glad that he went out there."
To expect vintage Harvey on this early date _ again _ was unreasonable. But from this point forward, we'll be keeping a closer eye on the numbers.
