Reese Kaplan -- Somewhere Matt Harvey is Smiling

If this was a Hollywood script, the Dark Knight of Gotham would mount a furious comeback and take his rightful place back amount the fabulous five rotation of legend. 

Unfortunately reality often does not always unfold with the predictable happy endings of fiction.  This past weekend in San Diego is painful evidence of what happens when he you don’t get to write the script.

First, let’s take Matt Harvey.  With a 5-0 lead going into the 9^th inning on Friday night, Manager Mickey Callway made the somewhat surprising decision to bring in the embattled pitcher to close out the game.  I’m sure every Mets fan let out a collective groan (and a few expletives) when they saw the pitching change that was made.

Indeed, that teeth gnashing was music to dentists’ ears when, to his first batter, he served up a gopher ball to ruin the shutout.  He promptly followed that with a walk to the subsequent batter.  Even the on-air announcers openly voiced that if he lost the next batter he was done (and said with a finality that it wasn’t necessarily just his role in the game that would be over).

Instead the scriptwriters set up the heroic surprise with Harvey retiring the next batter on a harmless fly to the outfield for out number one.  He then enticed the next batter into hitting into the inning and game ending double play.

Yes, the damage had been done.  Yes, he was once again ineffective.  However, when the chips were most down, he reached inside himself and did what he used to do – he got out of it.  For me it was the first encouraging thing I’ve seen from Matt Harvey in a couple of years.

In Sunday afternoon's game Harvey was brought in for the final inning in mop-up duty with a 14-2 lead.  He got the first batter on a fly out, the second on a fly out, a double, then the third on a fly out.  It wasn't a 9-pitch strikeout-the-side performance, but it was a scoreless inning and that's all you can hope for -- baby steps, one inning at a time.

Fast forward to the next day when the Mets’ pricy free agent acquisition, Jason Vargas, was set to make his debut for his new team.   Everyone wanted to see which Vargas would show up, the first half All-Star or the second half mediocrity.  For his career he’d been a credible back end starter, but unlike hitters, most pitchers achieve a more consistent route to achieve their final numbers, not the hot and cold streaks that more commonly affect batters. 

Well, surprise, Surprise, SURPRISE – Jason Vargas was neither.  He was flat-out awful.  Now given his limited preparation after breaking a bone in his non-pitching hand, I’m not ready to write him off after one rushed-back start.  Still, once again Sandy Alderson’s, ahem, “talent” for picking the right players once again seemed to rear it’s familiar and ugly head.  The irony, of course, is that what he provided is actually far worse than the man he replaced who got banished to the bullpen who, doubly ironically, earns less money.

Now after a single game no one is suggesting that Vargas is a complete failure nor that Harvey is redeemed and ready to reassume his role in the rotation.  However, instead of going for the more sure things available in free agency like Jake Arrietta, Alex Cobb and Lance Lynn, we indeed see the result of rolling the dice.  Sometimes it comes up snake eyes. 

A lot of folks are clamoring to see either Seth Lugo or Robert Gsellman moved into the rotation, but that would weaken an already fragile bullpen.  If you look at the reinforcements in AAA, Corey Oswalt is a starter (despite being used effectively as a long reliever earlier this season), and the other traditional reliever who is doing well – Tim Peterson and his 1.46 ERA – is not on the 40-man roster.  In other words, what you see is what you’re going to get for the foreseeable future. 

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For those folks writing the epitath on Adrian Gonzalez's career, I don't know what was more impressive on Sunday's 5-RBI performance -- the hard smacked double to CF or the opposite field HR which shows that there is still power there.  Maybe those many articles about Jay Bruce taking grounders at first struck a nerve, but it was good to see the former Gold Glover contributing.  His batting average is still ugly but he's hit 3 HRs and driven in 17 in 66 ABs.  For those of you with spreadsheets or calculators or an abacus on hand, he's on a pace for over 120 RBIs.  Maybe young Mr. Smith in Las Vegas ought to take notice, too.