NEW YORK — They chanted his name before his final pitch of the night. It was a sign that Matt Harvey had, for a game at least, found his redemption.
“Harvey! Harvey! Harvey!”
Then Harvey — in his first start since season-ending surgery to correct thoracic outlet syndrome, since that ugly 4.86 ERA, since this city turned on him — threw a pitch to Matt Kemp that might as well have been on a tee. Kemp crushed it over the left-field wall.
And not even that could ruin this night for Matt Harvey, his New York Mets and the fans who withstood a wet and chilly night at Citi Field to see if the Dark Knight could indeed rise.
It was a damn fine return, that’s for sure. Harvey threw 6 2/3 innings, allowing just three hits and striking out four. Two of those hits were Matt Kemp homers, but the Mets offense was alive enough to ensure a 6-2 win.
Matt Harvey looked fantastic in his return to Citi Field. (AP) This time of the year is all about overreaction. So Harvey is no more “back” as he would have been “done” if the results were flipped Thursday night. What is certain, though, is that Harvey has dialed back the concern. Most important for Harvey was the demeanor and pace. He was in complete control all night. He threw just 77 pitches, retiring the side in order four times. He looked like that Matt Harvey again, the one the city loved.
“I remember getting booed off the field last year,” Harvey said after the game, recalling his lowest point of 2016. “Flipping that switch and moving forward was exciting.”
He remembers, because it was ugly. At the lowest point, he gave up nine runs in 2 2/3 innings on May 19 against the Washington Nationals. The Mets weren’t sure what to do with him by then. He strung together a few good starts before a July 4 game in which he gave up five runs in 3 2/3 innings. After that, he elected for surgery.
His condition, thoracic outlet syndrome, meant the nerves in his right shoulder were being disrupted by his neck and shoulder muscles. The corrective surgery involved removing one of his ribs to ease the stress on his nerves.
“Just being back, being able to throw again,” Harvey said. “And have feeling in my hand, that’s the biggest thing.”
When Harvey left the field Thursday night, the fans rose to their feet. He handed off the ball and went back to the dugout. He was stoic then, just like he was all night. The crowd gave him a standing ovation and he just walked back to the dugout, like this was just another night.
It wasn’t, though. Not when you consider the concern that’s revolved around Harvey all offseason. His velocity had been down this spring. He was coming off a second season-ending surgery. He was far from a sure-thing anymore.
Naturally, everybody was looking at the radar gun. Harvey hit 94 most often with his fastball, including on a seventh-inning strikeout of Freddie Freeman that immediately preceded Kemp’s homer. He topped out at 96, on a third-inning strikeout of Tyler Flowers. A healthy Harvey routinely threw 96 in 2015 and in the past had cranked it as high as 98.
“You’re going to look, hopefully, in the middle of summer and he’s going to be back to where he was,” said Mets manager Terry Collins. “Now is he going to be throwing 98 again? I don’t know. I don’t have a crystal ball, but I think Matt Harvey can pitch as good as anybody when he’s at 93 to 95 and he showed it tonight.”
Harvey left in the seventh inning to a standing ovation. (AP) Before the game, Collins said command rather than velocity would be the bigger test for Harvey. If he could locate his pitches, Collins said, Harvey would be effective, even if he lost a couple ticks on the radar gun. Credit to Harvey, he executed that plan almost to perfection. His fastball, slider and changeup were all on point. The only blemishes were those two homers to Kemp.
“This game is definitely about location not velocity,” said Mets catcher Travis d’Arnaud. “The command that he had today made it easy to mix and match sequences and get outs really quick.”

The Mets enter the season with the most hyped pitching staff in baseball. If it’s as good as everyone thinks it could be, it could bring a World Series to Queens. But Harvey was hardly the only question mark. Zack Wheeler returns Friday after missing two full seasons. Steven Matz is already out with an arm injury. Even Noah Syndergaard, who took over the Mets ace role from Harvey, left his opening day start with the blister. A horrible start from Harvey and Mets fans might have been approaching a first-week meltdown.
For Harvey it was a little more simple than that. The Mets used eight pitchers the night before in a 12-inning loss. An effective start that took him deep into the game would help his bullpen as much as it would send a message to the baseball-watching world.
“It’s been a long time since I pitched into the seventh inning,” he said after the game.
Then he smiled a bit. As he should. Redemption feels good.
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Mike Oz is the editor of Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @MikeOz