62 Sunday,March 29, 2020 DAILY NEWSNYDailyNews.com
MIKE LUPICA
SHOOTING FROM THE LIP
T
hey were the two comic
book pitching heroes at
Citi Field, Matt Harvey
and Noah Syndergaard
were. Along with Jacob
deGrom, they were going to
form the kind of rotation that
Mets fans thought Tom Sea-
ver and Jerry Koosman and
Nolan Ryan were going to be
in the 1960s. The Dark Knight
and Thor helped pitch the
Mets into the 2015 World Se-
ries, the first time for the Mets
in the Series since the Subway
Series of 2000 against the Yan-
kees. And were something to
see on a pitcher’s mound.
But because this is baseball
and young pitchers’ arms
we’re talking about, you know
the deal: You want to make the
pitching gods laugh? Tell them
about your plans.
Matt Harvey was the one
who took the stage first. It was
Tom Verducci of Sports Illus-
trated who called him the Dark
Knight of Gotham. You know
what it was like when he came
along. Harvey was going to be
the best young pitcher the
Mets had had sinceDwight
Gooden. No one thought he
would be the next Seaver.
There won’t ever be another
Seaver with the Mets, not even
Cy Young deGrom. But we
thought Harvey ould be that
kind of generational, even aspi-
rational, talent. When the All-
Star Game came to Citi Field in
2 013, Matt Harvey got the
start.
Seaver was there to watch
him that night, after throwing
out the first pitch. Sandy Ko-
ufax was there to watch him. I
asked Seaver about Harvey lat-er, and he said, “I am duly im-
pressed.”
And then in October of that
year Harvey had Tommy John
surgery to repair a partially
torn ulnar collateral nerve in
his pitching arm. Came back
from that. And in Game 5 of the
World Series against the Roy-
als, with the Mets down 1-3 in
games but trying to push the
thing back to Kansas City, the
Dark Knight, with the lights up
as bright as they would ever be
for him, got the ball again atCiti Field.
And for eight innings was
everything we thought he
would be and hoped he would
be, before Terry Collins let
Harvey talk him back into go-
ing out for the ninth. The Roy-
als ended up tying the game,
and winning the Series in extra
innings.
But Harvey still had the
game of his life. Eight complete
innings in the end, five hits,
nine strikeouts, 111 pitches, the
cheers for him building withevery inning.
And now? For now he is a
free agent without a job in a
sport without a season right
now. He turned 31 on Friday.
He is the same age as Jake
de G r o m , w h o i s t w o C y
Youngs in a row working on
three whenever we have base-
ball again in America.
Then there is Noah Synder-
gaard. Known as Thor because
of his long blond hair and the
fact that he really is built like a
su p e r h e r o. H e w a s e v e nyounger than Harvey and de-
Grom in the World Series of
2 015. He was just 23, but could
throw a baseball harder than
both of them, just about as
hard as anybody in this world.
He was the only one of those
three starters to get a victory in
the ’15 Series. Game 3, at Citi
Field. Before that game, here is
what Syndergaard said to his
catcher, Travis d’Arnaud:
“How do you feel about high
and tight for the first pitch, and
then curveball for the second
one?”
He threw one high and tight
to Alcides Escobar, all right,
the Royals leadoff man who’d
led off Game 1 of the Series
with an inside-the-park homer
against Harvey in Kansas City.
He t h r e w o n e 1 0 0 m p h
Escobar ended up practically
sitting on home plate after that
pitch.
Here is what Syndergaard
said after the game:
“I feel like it really made a
statement to start the game off:
You guys can’t dig in and get
too aggressive because I’ll
come in there.”
The very next year he went
toe-to-toe against the great
Madison Bumgarner at Citi
Field for seven shutout innings
(and 10 strikeouts) of a Wild
Card game. He was still throw-
ing the ball at 100 mph this
spring. And this was going to
be such a big year for him, Syn-
dergaard still just 27 years old
right now and seeing free
agency up ahead of him. Only
now it came out this week that
he n e e d e d To m m y Jo h n
surgery, too. Maybe, when
there is baseball again and he isYa never know with
comic book heroes
Matt Harvey was on top of the world before the ninth inning of the 2015 Series and more injuries. APThe Dark Knight never returned, but Thor still can