Matt Harvey pitched the biggest game of his life through eight innings tonight and it looked like Mets manager Terry Collins was not going to let him go out and try to close the must-win game out. Harvey allowed four hits, all singles, and struck out nine up to that point and when pitching coach Dan Warthen walked over to tell him thanks for a job well done he said "no way." Warthen persisted and said take it up with Collins, and he did. Harvey and Collins argued about it for a bit, with Harvey telling him "I'm going fucking back out there," before Collins opted to let him pitch the ninth. It did not go well.
Harvey walked the first batter, Lorenzo Cain, and then Eric Hosmer laced an RBI double to left. And then disaster. Collins took Harvey out then, and brought in Jeurys Familia to face Mike Moustakas, and he grounded to first for the first out, moving Hosmer to third. Salvador Perez grounded to David Wright, cutting in front of the shortstop, and Hosmer took off for home on the throw to first. Lucas Duda's throw sailed wide of Travis d'Arnaud at home and the Royals tied in the ninth.
Hopefully we don't see much second-guessing of Terry Collins tonight and in the coming days if the Mets lose, because if you were a Mets fan, or just a fan of crazy-dramatic sports scenes, you wanted to see Harvey back out there for the ninth. (Maybe not once he walked the first batter, though!) It's just a shame that one of the actual worst-case scenarios actually played out. The Mets couldn't get anything going in the bottom of the ninth, so we head to extra innings.[FOX]
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