While Matt Harvey's fastball may be in tatters, his hubris remains intact.
Despite coming off the disabled list and enduring one of the worst starts of his career, the embattled right-hander asked to make his next appearance on short rest. The Mets granted the request, assigning Harvey to a Wednesday start against the Phillies, even though it means he'll pitch on three days' rest rather than the standard four.
"The plan is to send him out," manager Terry Collins said on Monday. "I just got talking with him this morning. He wants to get back out there as quick as possible. He feels good."
Harvey approached Dan Warthen with the unorthodox idea and the Mets pitching coach was comfortable with the request because the righty threw only 70 pitches in an inauspicious return on Saturday in Houston.
Said Collins: "Even though the effort obviously was more than it is in any rehab assignment, he feels good enough that he wants to get back out."
Facing a loaded Astros lineup, and working with a fastball that never topped 94 mph, Harvey, 28, allowed seven runs on eight hits in his first game since June. Though he did not walk a batter, he allowed plenty of hard contact and generated only a few swings and misses in two tortured innings, the shortest start of his career.
Harvey's ERA rose to 5.97, the highest it has been in his first season since undergoing surgery to treat thoracic outlet syndrome. Yet he insisted that he had "no doubt" that he will find success, and that he wouldn't need many starts to do so.
