Saturday Seasons: 2013, Deja Vu All Over Again

The expectations for the 2013 Mets were modest but, at the very least, they were hoping to take a step forward to becoming a contender. However, the season became a literal repeat of 2012 as the team finished with the exact same record of 74-88.

There was some optimism stemming from the continued development of 24-year old pitcher Matt Harvey. The righthander burst on the scene in 2012 with an impressive rookie season. Throughout their history, the Mets have produced some great young pitchers (Tom Seaver, Dwight Gooden to name a few) so many were hoping Harvey was the next in line.

In May, Harvey appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated as “The Dark Knight of Gotham,” in reference to the recent Batman movies. The nickname only added to the mystique surrounding this new star who was embraced by the fan base.

Harvey and the fact that Citifield would host the 2013 All Star game gave the fans some hope for the season but it became apparent early on that things were not going to work out as they would’ve preferred.

Harvey’s popularity began to peak in 2013 when his starts carried a moniker titled, “Harvey Day.” "It’s Harvey Day” meant the righthander’s scheduled starts were usually accompanied by big crowds at home and a tremendous buzz when he took the mound.

Harvey’s first start came in the second game of the season. A temperature in the low 40s for a night game held the crowd down but he did not disappoint the over 22,000 fans on hand. Harvey gave up one hit with 10 strikeouts in seven scoreless innings as the Mets went to 2-0 on the young season with an 8-4 win over the San Diego Padres.

After winning his first four starts, Harvey’s ERA was a minuscule 0.93 but he showed he was human when he was touched up for three runs in six innings against the Los Angeles Dodgers on April 24th. Harvey was taken off the hook for a no decision and the Mets won the game in ten innings on a walk off, grand slam home run by Jordany Valdespin.

Beside Harvey, one other bright spot in the early going was catcher John Buck, who was acquired from the Toronto Blue Jays in December, 2012 as a bit part of a multi player trade with an eye towards the future. The Mets sent the reigning National League Cy Young Award winner, R.A. Dickey, and catchers Josh Thole and Mike Nickeas to the Jays for Buck, outfielder Wuilmer Becerra, promising young catcher Travis d’Arnaud and highly touted pitcher Noah Syndergaard.

Buck was deemed the starter and he was a revelation in April when he smacked nine home runs with 25 runs batted in. Despite Buck’s heroics, the Mets went 10-15 in April.

The highlight of the regular season came in late May when the Mets swept the Yankees in the Subway Series for the first time in franchise history.

The teams played four straight weekday games from May 27th to the 30th. The first two were at Citifield and the last two at Yankee Stadium.

The Mets came from behind to take the opener, 2-1.

David Wright’s 7th inning home run off of Phil Hughes tied the game at one and then Daniel Murphy had an RBI single off of future Met David Robertson in the 8th. Bobby Parnell pitched a scoreless ninth for the save.

The next game was “Harvey Day” and it was eerily similar to the opener.

Harvey went eight innings and gave up one run with 10 strikeouts but the Mets trailed 1-0 heading to the ninth with Mariano Rivera on the mound for the save.

Rivera did not record an out.

Murphy led off with a ground rule double and scored on Wright’s RBI single that tied the game at one. Wright took second on a throwing error by Yankee center fielder Brett Gardner and scored the winning run on Lucas Duda’s line single to right. The Mets poured out of the dugout to celebrate their best win of the season.

In the first game in the Bronx, the Mets scored five times in the top of the first and cruised to a 9-4 win.

The series finale saw Dillon Gee strike out 12 in seven innings of work as the Mets completed the four game sweep with a 3-1 win.

Unfortunately, the Mets couldn’t capitalize on the momentum of the series sweep as they dropped seven of their next eight games to fall to 23-36 on the season.

The skid included a devastating 20 inning, 2-1 loss at Citifield to the Miami Marlins on June 8th. 16 pitchers were used while the Mets left 22 men on base and were 0 for 19 with RISP. The next day was no better as the Mets lost 8-4 to Miami in 10 innings.

Harvey did not suffer his first loss until mid-June.

On June 23rd, Harvey tossed six scoreless innings against the Philadelphia Phillies to improve to 7-1 with a 2.05 ERA as the momentum was building for a start in next month’s All Star game at Citifield.

In early July, it was revealed that the All Star game would feature a Mets flavor.

Wright (.306, .396 OBP, 13 HRS, 44 RBI at the break) was voted in by the fans to be the starting third baseman for his 7th All Star appearance and Harvey was officially named to the team in a vote of managers, coaches and players.

The day before the All Star game, National League and San Francisco Giants Manager Bruce Bochy named Harvey to be the starting pitcher for the Midsummer Classic.

The Mets were well represented in the other events associated with the game.

Noah Syndergaard and Brandon Nimmo played in the Futures game and Wright participated in the Home Run Derby. (Oakland A’s outfielder and future Met Yoenis Cespedes won the Derby despite not being named to the AL All Star team).

A crowd of over 45,000 was pumped to see the best players in the world on the same field, but most of the cheers were reserved for Harvey and Wright.

Wright was hitting fourth in the lineup and there was a raucous ovation when he was introduced with the National League starters.

Harvey was warming up in the bullpen but before he was introduced, he had stepped onto the field in centerfield to make some warm up throw. The crowd was so loud, that you could just about hear when he was introduced by Fox broadcaster Joe Buck as the National League’s starting pitcher.

It was a night that honored Mets history as Hall of Famer Tom Seaver threw out the ceremonial first pitch to Wright.

Harvey finished his warm ups and was ready to throw the first pitch to Mike Trout. The first pitch never reached the catcher as Trout lined a double down the right field line.

Yankees second baseman Robinson Cano was the next batter and Harvey hit him with a 1-0 pitch putting runners on first and second with nobody out.

Harvey was in an early jam and had to face the reigning American League MVP winner (who would go on to win his second in a row in 2013) Miguel Cabrera.

With the count 2-2, Harvey threw a devastating slider that Cabrera swung and missed for a huge strikeout that got the crowd roaring.

Chris Davis flew out and then Harvey struck out Jose Bautista on his 38th pitch of the inning to end the threat.

Harvey came out for the second inning and threw 15 more pitches. The Mets righthander retired future Hall of Famer David Ortiz on a fly out to center, a swinging strikeout of Adam Jones and ended his outing by getting future Hall of Famer Joe Mauer on a line out to left field. As Harvey walked off the mound, the crowd, who knew he was done, honored him with a raucous ovation.

Wright led off the bottom of the second by grounding out to third. In his second at bat, he grounded out to end the fourth but he got one more chance in the seventh and lined a single to left.

The AL went on to a 3-0 win but not before there was another emotional moment in the bottom of the eighth.

Yankees closer and Hall of Famer Mariano Rivera was pitching in his final All Star game. When he entered the game from the bullpen, Rivera’s signature entrance song, “Enter Sandman” was playing and the crowd gave him a huge standing ovation.

Most of the American League All Star team came out of their dugout and applauded while every other All Star in both dugouts was applauding and honoring one of the all time greats.

After he set the side down in order, Rivera walked off the mound to another standing ovation. In an emotional vote, because some other players could’ve won the award, Rivera was named the All Star game Most Valuable Player.

Harvey picked up where he left off after the break.

In his first start since the All Star game, Harvey tossed seven scoreless innings with ten strikeouts as the Mets shutout the Phillies.

On August 7th, Harvey recorded his first career complete game shutout when he blanked the Colorado Rockies on four hits.The win gave him a 9-3 record with a 2.09 ERA. There was talk of a potential Cy Young Award but Harvey’s season took a disastrous turn later that month.

Harvey made three more starts after the complete game shutout and didn’t seem to be right as he gave up a total of eight earned runs in 18.2 innings pitched. In his final start against Detroit, Harvey gave up 13 hits and two runs in 6.2 innings pitched.

Two days after his final start, Harvey felt forearm tightness, an ominous omen. An MRI confirmed that Harvey had a partially torn UCL. At first, Harvey tried to avoid Tommy John surgery by rehabbing but he eventually underwent a successful procedure on October 4th and would miss the entire 2014 season.

It was bad enough that the Mets were having another down season but the Harvey news was a crushing blow. Unfortunately, the injury began a chain of medical issues that would eventually derail what was once a promising career.

A sell out crowd jammed Citifield on the final day of the season to see Hall of Famer Mike Piazza inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame in a 30 minute ceremony before the game.

The Mets came from behind to score a 3-2 win over the Milwaukee Brewers to finish with a 74-88 record, exactly the same as the year before. However, it was the Mets fifth straight losing season.