CLEVELAND — The first inning, you thought: Hmmm.
Matt Harvey faced three Indians in that first inning. He threw 10 pitches. Nine of them were strikes, which struck out the side, Rajai Davis, Jason Kipnis and Francisco Lindor all walking back to the dugout, muttering to themselves. It’s hard to have a more perfect inning than that.
“Electric,” was the word his manager, Terry Collins, chose.
“In control,” was the way Harvey himself put it.
The first 4 ²/₃ innings, you thought: Maybe.
Thirteen men up, 13 men down. Maybe you hadn’t called your buddies to alert them what was happening just yet. Maybe you hadn’t yet scowled at the other folks in the bar who had uttered the unutterable words prematurely: no-hitter, perfect game, gem. But Harvey barely needed 40 pitches to secure those 13 outs.
“Cruising,” was the word Collins used.
“Cruising,” was the word Harvey used.
The Mets led 1-0. They probably should have had a few more on the board, a familiar refrain through this season so far and through so many of Harvey’s first 67 starts in the major leagues. But the way he was throwing, it didn’t seem it would matter. One run would be plenty. One run could stand up like six …
“Then what happened,” Harvey said, “happened.”
What happened happened in such a shocking rush, in such a stunning blur that it almost seemed preposterous. It’s like driving a brand new Porsche, then realizing the engine was stolen from an AMC Pacer. It took four batters, it took less than six minutes, and Harvey’s day and the Mets’ was turned upside-down.
1. Carlos Santana drew a walk on a 3-and-1 pitch. End of perfecto.
2. Yan Gomes flew out lazily. Two outs.
3. Facing an 0-2 count, Jose Ramirez froze at a pitch that was probably — probably — a ball but easily could have been called a strike. It wasn’t. On the next pitch, Ramirez drove a ball high and far to center field. Had Juan Lagares been playing out there, it’s possible — possible — his legs and his gold glove might have snared it, and if Alejandro De Aza hadn’t slammed the ball all night Friday, Lagares probably would have been out there. But he wasn’t out there. De Aza was. The ball landed over his head. End of no-hitter. End of shutout. And the lead was gone.
4. Old friend Juan Uribe stroked a single to left. Ramirez scored. Now the Mets were trailing. From perfect to perfectly awful, all in the time it takes to heat up a microwave dinner.
“Everybody watched,” Harvey said later. “It’s pretty obvious what happened.”
It didn’t end there. The Indians finished him off with three more runs in the sixth, and Harvey walked slowly to the dugout, shaken, on his way to an 0-3 start for the year, his ERA up to 5.71. Forget the perfect game. For the second time in three appearances, he didn’t even get a quality start.
“Just have to start over,” Harvey said after the Mets’ 7-5 loss officially was over and the postgame inquisition officially had begun. “Flush this and the last couple of games and keep my head down and keep going.”
There is plenty of reason for the Mets to be worried about this, of course. The very foundation of who the Mets are is predicated on getting a strong effort from the starters most nights — especially if the offense is going to continue its chronic inefficiency. One troubling start — like Opening Night in Kansas City — you can shrug that off.
Two middling starts — like the pedestrian performance against the Phillies last week — you can justify, say, “Well, he’s due.”
Three of them, back to back, to start a season? All of them so similar — running into a bulldozer in the fifth and sixth innings every time? Then you are allowed to wonder. Then you are allowed to fret. And until he shows you different, you wonder and you fret in equal doses.
“I still think he’s going to have a big year,” pitching coach Dan Warthen said. “He’s forcing things right now.”
Harvey said his body is fine, his arm is fine, and that’s good to hear, good to know. He still needs to get this fixed, still needs to be what he was for much of last year, when he pitched to a 2.71 ERA, even if the 2013 version, the one that became the Dark Knight, is gone forever. Last year still can be plenty good enough.
Can he get there? So much of who the Mets are — and want to be — is riding on the answer to that simple, complicated question.