CHICAGO -- Matt Harvey predicts the New York Mets' offense will awaken soon. Slumbering lumber cost the Amazin's again on Wednesday night.
Harvey tossed seven scoreless innings, but the Mets lost to the Chicago Cubs, 2-1, at Wrigley Field.
The Mets have scored five runs in three games this series. As a result, the Mets have lost consecutive games in which young aces Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard and now Harvey have started.
"Everybody wanted to win that game. After the last couple, we really needed that," Harvey said late Wednesday. "We're going to be ready to play tomorrow. We've got a long stretch of games, so we're all going to stay positive and go out there. We're going to put up runs. We're in a little bit of a rut right now. Obviously everybody goes through that. Tomorrow is the first day to come out of it."
Harvey was pulled with his pitch count at 100, with the Mets clinging to a 1-0 lead. Manager Terry Collins said Harvey did not protest. Collins suggested Harvey may be able to go 110 pitches at points this summer, but the reins for now remain relatively conservative as Harvey returns from Tommy John surgery, especially with the team early in a stretch of 20 games in 20 days.
"I was fine to stay in," Harvey said. "I think the game plan going into the season was to keep everything around 100. I think if I had a quicker seventh, with a little bit less pitches, it might have been a different story. I think it's one of those calls you need to make as a manager. Nine times out of 10 it's going to work, and tonight it just didn't."
Heavily used Carlos Torres failed to protect the one-run lead. Asked to be the primary setup man in a decimated bullpen, Torres surrendered a game-tying RBI single to Dexter Fowler in the eighth.
With Collins unwilling to use closer Jeurys Familia to open the ninth, since it would require six outs of usage if the Mets were to win, Torres remained in to begin that frame. He loaded the bases and departed with none out. Familia eventually forced in the winning run with a one-out walk to Chris Coghlan.
"Harvey threw a tremendous game today, and it's just a shame that I end up losing the game for the team at the end," Torres said. "He had a tremendous performance. He did everything we asked him to do."
Harvey indicated that he changed his game plan somewhat Wednesday. In recent outings, bidding to keep his pitch count down, he would throw first-pitch fastballs in the strike zone. Teams began to pounce on those pitches. So Harvey consciously threw more first-pitch breaking balls against the Cubs. It worked. Harvey limited Chicago to three hits and two walks (one intentional) in seven scoreless innings.
"Good teams are going to pick up on that -- an aggressive team like them especially," Harvey said about his recent tendency for first-pitch fastballs. "For us, going into the game, we definitely wanted to mix things up a little bit more and found that it was pretty successful doing that."
Not that he should be asked to do much at the plate, but Harvey contributed to the offensive frustrations. After Dilson Herrera produced a one-out single in the top of the seventh, Harvey failed to bunt Herrera to second base. In fact, Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo alertly allowed Harvey's popped-up bunt to drop. Rizzo then initiated a double play because Harvey did not race to first base.
"I'm struggling right now with that," Harvey said about his bunting. "We're working on it. We're trying to get better. I'm not getting it done right now."
