Despite ever-present shadow of 2015 World Series, Matt Harvey is focused on future
When Matt Harvey worked out Tuesday at Kauffman Stadium with the Royals, he may not have noticed the 2015 World Series championship flag. But his mind flashed back to that Fall Classic.
“I definitely had some memories when I walked back onto this field,” Harvey said Tuesday.
Harvey started Game 1 of that World Series, seeing his first pitch turned into an inside-the-park home run by Alcides Escobar at Kauffman Stadium. Harvey didn’t get a decision that night or in Game 5.
It’s the latter that remains an indelible image in the minds of many baseball fans.
Harvey limited the Royals to four hits over eight shutout innings and Mets manager Terry Collins planned to have closer Jeurys Familia protect a 2-0 lead. Instead, Harvey convinced Collins to let him pitch the ninth.
Things went off the rails quickly. Harvey walked Lorenzo Cain and gave up a run-scoring double to Eric Hosmer. Familia came in and got two groundouts, but Hosmer made his historic mad dash to score the tying run.
In a matter of eight minutes, Mets fans at Citi Field went from joy to stunned silence.
Three innings later, the Royals put up a five spot and won the game and the series.
A month later, Royals fans attending the premier of the MLB video release of the 2015 World Series DVD at the Kansas City Music Hall howled with laughter at a clip of Fox Sports announcer Joe Buck saying Harvey would return for the ninth inning.
Harvey, who had missed the 2014 season after having Tommy John surgery, views that moment through a different prism.
“I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything,” Harvey told the New York Post in May. “I just wish I could have finished the job.”
In 2016, Harvey had thoracic outlet syndrome surgery and pushed himself to return sooner than he should have. Harvey pitched for the Mets and Reds in 2018 and the Angels in 2019. He had a 5.53 ERA in those two seasons.
Harvey didn’t sign with a team ahead of the 2020 season but kept working out in hopes of getting another chance. It’s come with the Royals, the team he nearly shut out in the World Series.
Nearly.
Harvey, 31, isn’t ready to let that World Series game define him, nor the difficult seasons that followed. Instead he’s focused on the future, beginning with a start in Wednesday’s doubleheader against the Reds.
“That experience being there, always remembering what that’s like, I wouldn’t change anything for that,” Harvey said Tuesday when asked about Game 5. “It’s kind of hard to look back now, I obviously still want to play and kind of turn my career around and play as long as I can.
“If I’m to look back at a situation like that or look at my career what’s happened, I don’t think I would put myself in a position to succeed from now on. So I definitely will hold off on that for hopefully a couple years, and then be able to revisit that when I’m hopefully done playing and was able to turn things around.”
