NEW YORK (AP) – There’s certainly one New York team elated about the limit on Matt Harvey’s innings – and it’s not the first-place Mets.
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The Yankees begin a three-game series with the first-place Blue Jays on the road on Monday.
Cody Anderson (5-3) pitched 6-2/3 innings, allowing one run to get the win. Alex Rodriguez came up, but flied out to end the threat.
On the other hand, there has been no hotter team over the past month and a half than the Mets. But on Sunday night, sloppy fielding, inadequate relief pitching and insufficient offensive production all factored into a loss that dropped the Mets’ NL East lead over the Nationals – who beat the Marlins Sunday afternoon – to six games with 13 games to play.
With Harvey nearing that number, Boras wanted him shut down; the Mets, obviously, wanted otherwise.
New York has been a pinstriped city for two decades but the Mets appear to be poised to light the Empire State Building orange and blue this fall thanks to a staff of young aces and a rejuvenated offense behind trade-deadline addition Yoenis Cespedes. They looked risky then, and despite never really asserting themselves in the division race, the Orioles remained extremely good at home.
Mets: Noah Syndergaard is set to make his 22nd career start, the second straight Mets rookie to get the ball in this series. Rounding out the rotation, figuratively and literally, is veteran Bartolo Colon, who at 42 years old has a winning record of 14-12. “He’ll be 0-2 and throw one right down the middle when you don’t have to throw a strike”. The 35-year-old CC Sabathia, in his 15th season, has been struggling over the past three seasons as he has posted an ERA of over 4.75 in each year. Mets 2B Juan Uribe left after four innings due to a chest contusion….
Actress Sarah Jessica Parker, snaps a cell phone photo with her husband, Broadway actor Matthew Broderick on the field before a baseball game between the New York Mets and the New York Yankees in New York, Sunday, September 20, 2015.
The Subway Series finale dragged to an anticlimactic conclusion Sunday night at Citi Field thanks to a sluggish performance from the Mets, as the Yankees rolled to an 11-2 victory.
That assumes, of course, that you believe the innings limits themselves make sense for a pitcher in his first season back from Tommy John surgery.
Carlos Beltran followed by doubling both runners home.
In case there is any doubt about the stress Harvey’s innings limitations is placing on team officials, manager Terry Collins twice referenced his job status after the game.
Right fielder Jorge Soler and third baseman Kris Bryant hit back-to-back solo home runs in the fifth inning as the Cubs beat the St. Louis Cardinals.
“Just the at-bats that Murphy had had off him before”, Girardi said, explaining the quick hook.
Murphy said of his homer and Tanaka, “It was nice because of the way their starter can throw the ball”.
Matz gave up two more hits in the second, needing 43 pitches for the first two innings. Nine of Syndergaard’s 10 pitches to the first three batters were fastballs. Sabathia won’t pitch in any of those contests, but with the way he’s been going, the Yanks probably wish he could. This week though, the there is no bigger contributing factor than Harvey. Bryce Harper hit a two-run homer after delivering a sacrifice fly during the Nats’ three-run fifth.
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Harvey might have lasted into the sixth, according to Collins, if his pitch count hadn’t crept to 77 through five. It’s all about getting the most for his money tonight.
