You’ve heard of pitchers who rake – but how do pitchers take over?
Matt Harvey had both days to remember and forget on Wednesday, returning to the City for the first time since the Met in 2018.
For “The Dark Knight”, coming back to Gotham City was indifferent, as the City’s faithful welcomed him warmly. But the results were not there: Harvey was given seven earned runs in 4/3 innings.
One particular batting did not bother Harvey too much: a fourth strike strike from the Mets to Tarian Walker, who did not show much urge to swing the stick, going down on three strikes.
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Not hacking at all, and it’s not like the Mets are pouring water on him: they were 4-0 up at that point, not an inaccessible game that would lend itself to resting on the gas pedal.
To give Walker a little benefit of the doubt here, he shouted on the day, throwing seven innings off a one-run ball in a 7–1 win over Baltimore.
Walker entered the season hitting .071 on the season, which is not really a problem, given how well he has pitched so far for the New York NL. Suffice it to say, he is taking care of his end of bargaining on the mound, which is what really matters.
But this leads to an elephant in the batsman’s box conversation: how long are we taking professional pitchers to pretend to be professional hitters? Pitchers in baseball are hitting a collective .099 to enter Wednesday’s games, so they aren’t exactly lighting it in the box.
This would certainly not empty the “elimination DH” crowd.
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