Final Score: Indians 7, Mets 5

On Saturday, Curtis Granderson led the game off with a home run. In the top of the 8th, Yoenis Cespedes hit a three run bomb. Neil Walker also hit a solo shot in that inning. The home run parade from Friday continued against the Indians on Saturday. With our ace Matt Harvey on the mound, five runs should be plenty to win that game and the series. But it wasn’t because Harvey got smacked up yet again. He’s been following an eerily similar in-game blueprint. He starts strong and tires midway through the game. Harvey was no hitting them into the 5th inning, and then the wheels fell off. The Indians got a couple of runs against Harvey in the 5th and then a few more in the 6th before he was yanked for Rafael Montero. If your starter is giving up five runs, it’s generally loser ball every time. And it certainly isn’t what we’ve grown accustomed to seeing with Harvey on the mound. Also Rafael Montero looked bad in his season debut. He’s gone from top prospect to toilet mop up man.

What’s The Deal With Harvey?: So Harvey’s start to the season is a big problem. Dan Warthen, Terry Collins, and Harvey are all super concerned. Supposedly it’s a mechanical issue from the stretch and Warthen said “Basically, he’s trying to throw hard.” Matt Harvey refuted the notion that he’s suffering from playoff related fatigue. Quite frankly, I don’t buy that. I think Harvey and deGrom have both battled issues that have affected their mechanics, velocity, and performance. And I just refuse to believe that an all time high workload in 2015 has nothing to do with it.

Whatever it is, please keep lighting all your damn candles. Jacob deGrom has the troublesome lat, Zack Wheeler had a “minor” surgery to get some Tommy John stitches removed, and Matt Harvey now has these mechanical “issues”. Meanwhile, Noah Syndergaard is somehow sustaining his 100 MPH fastball and throwing harder than anyone on the planet. We need this rotation intact. We need the Mets pitching universe to remain in a perfect state of equilibrium. Ideally, we could just use stem cells to clone Bartolo Colon and have five 300 pound starters invulnerable to injury. Maybe before he retires, Tolo can put us in touch with one of his friends at the Biogenesis anti-aging clinic and make that happen. But for now, we need our young studs to stay healthy naturally and remain effective. Fingers crossed.

Today: We need to beat their ace Corey Kluber in the rubber game today. It’s as simple as that. We are five games behind the Nationals already in the standings. Sigh.

Pray For What Matters: By the way, take everything I wrote above and toss it in the trash. Jacob deGrom is still in Florida but not because of his lat injury. He’s there because his newborn infant is having medical complications. The team said today that the infant is doing much better, but please pray for Jacob, his wife Stacey and their newborn baby Jaxon.