Mets to skip Matt Harvey’s start on Sunday

The New York Mets will not have Matt Harvey start at Coors Field as previously scheduled. New York now holds a four-game lead over the Washington Nationals atop the NL East, but it is by no means a comfortable lead. Harvey was on pace for roughly 210 regular-season innings.

RHP Bartolo Colon was hit on the right wrist by a pitch in the second inning.

At that pace, if he threw six innings each outing for eight starts, he would have 48 more innings pitched on the year, bringing his total to 202.

“With the amount of innings we’ve built up and the stretch we have coming up, especially pitching in September and trying to get into October, we all discussed and felt like this was a good time”. The Mets intended for Matz to return from the disabled list after making only one more rehab start, but Matz lacked sharpness while pitching for Class A St. Lucie on Thursday, and the original plan is no longer set in stone.

“I think the last thing you want to do is keeping putting it off or waiting to hear when it’s going to happen”, Harvey said. Right-hander Logan Verrett will pitch in his place, and Harvey will slide back into the rotation next Friday. The bottom line is that he’s too valuable of an asset to the team’s long-term future to let him become tired and increase his chance of injury. “And I don’t want to do it in September, so I’m doing it now”.

The Mets also plan to have rookie Noah Syndergaard skip a start soon. He will make his scheduled start in Philadelphia Tuesday, but will likely miss the following start against the Red Sox. They twice have tried a six-man rotation earlier this season, but only made through one turn each time – once because of pushback from the pitchers and the other when Matz suffered the torn lat muscle. “I kind of preferred it be sooner rather than later”. “We were afraid we were going to end up having to shut this guy down or both guys down”. If the Mets were to lose on Sunday and then miss out on the postseason by a single game, taking away a start from Harvey would loom large.

That should be enough to prevent Harvey from blowing past the 185-190-inning limit the Mets drew up for him in Spring Training; if he averages seven innings per start the rest of the way and the Mets use a six-man rotation for all of September, he’ll finish with 194. “If he commands that strike zone like he shows he can, he’s going to be fine”.