WASHINGTON -- Matt Harvey feels strong. He is learning in his first season back from Tommy John surgery, however, that being strong-willed and determined will take you only so far.
Harvey struggled with locating pitches early on Monday night against the National League East-leading Washington Nationals. He ultimately retired the final 14 batters he faced in seven innings. But by then, Harvey had surrendered five runs (four earned) and the New York Mets lost the opener of a big series 7-2 at Nationals Park.
Harvey walked four batters. It marked his third straight start issuing at least that many walks. Before this three-start stretch, Harvey had walked four or more batters only once in his career.
Two of the early walks went to Bryce Harper. Harvey said it wasn't a case of being careful with Harper, given the Nats' depleted lineup. Harvey has not yet regained his pinpoint command, which is typical of pitchers in their first season back from the ligament-replacement surgery.
"Everything felt so good and fresh that everything was kind of spraying all over the place," Harvey said. "It was one of those games where I need to put up zeroes earlier in the game, and I wasn't able to do that. But as the game went on, I think it was important to go as deep as I could and somewhat keep the game within reach and try to keep our bullpen out of the game as much as possible."
Harvey recorded a modest three strikeouts. That's a sign that Harvey, despite high-velocity readings, still has not regained the late life on his pitches, according to manager Terry Collins.
"It's definitely been game to game and inning to inning," Harvey said about his command issues. "But I think I'm pretty happy with the way that the last couple of innings went. That's a good start to the second half for me and something I can look to as a positive coming out of that start. Unfortunately, it was a big series and I needed to find it earlier and I wasn't able to do that."
Harvey dropped to 8-7 with a 3.19 ERA.
He told Collins he was capable of handling the eighth inning, but the manager went with reliever Alex Torres. Harvey logged 99 pitches in his first second-half start.
"I definitely wanted to go back out for the eighth after the strong finish," Harvey said. "I think I can definitely build on the way that everything felt the last half of the game. I'm definitely looking forward to my next start."
Collins suggested Harvey may have been overly amped early in the game because of the magnitude of this series and this road trip. The Mets dropped three games behind the first-place Nats with Monday's loss.
Harvey acknowledged he may have overthrown early, but disputed that it was related to the importance of the series.
"I don't think it was the game. I think it just was how my body felt," Harvey said. "You come out fresh like that and everything feels good.
"I think I am happy with the work that we put in between starts and I felt like I found my arm slot."
