“Right now he and Michael are driving in the big runs for us,” Collins said of Walker. “With Ces out of the lineup, we need those guys to do that. It’s great to have him do it. I hope he continues. I hope he ends up with 50 homers. Right now he’s been a huge part of our offense.”
The Mets promptly gave Harvey a lead after Cozart’s homer, scoring two unearned runs in the first with help from Walker.
With two outs, Lucas Duda hit a fly ball that hit off the side of the glove of left fielder Scott Schebler, allowing Alejandro De Aza to scurry home from second base. Walker then drove in Duda with a hard-hit single to right field.
Harvey pitched a clean second, striking out two, before loading the bases in the third with only one out. Harvey struck out Eugenio Suarez, though, and evaded more damage when Walker dived up the middle to snag a soft liner off the bat of Devin Mesoraco.
After Harvey gave up another run in the fifth, Mesoraco grounded into a double play to end the inning.
“I still didn’t feel great all the time the entire outing, but over all I was able to stay in my mechanics a little bit better and kind of attack the hitters like I normally would and want to,” Harvey said, mentioning the importance of his preparation with the pitching coach Dan Warthen. “Dan and I have been working so hard the past couple of weeks to figure out what’s going on, and we’re moving in the right direction.”
Harvey pitched one more inning. After striking out Jordan Pacheco on a 97-mile-per-hour fastball, his 102nd pitch of the evening, Harvey (2-3) walked to the dugout, where Collins greeted him with a proud, hearty handshake.
“All around, obviously getting over five innings is big,” Harvey said. “I’ve kind of struggled doing that. Creeping over the five-inning mark is definitely a big plus for me. For me to go out and finish that off and come out of a fresh inning was definitely big.”
After Harvey departed, the Mets’ bullpen retired all nine batters it faced, with five strikeouts. Since Jeurys Familia had pitched in the last three games, Addison Reed pitched the ninth inning for the save.
The outing was arguably Harvey’s best of the season despite his missing the dominating control that has defined much of his career.
When accurate, Harvey mixed an array of breaking pitches and was able to cruise through the Reds’ lineup like a clipper ship.
The Mets committed two errors with Harvey on the mound in a sloppy game featuring a combined five errors before the end of the fourth inning. From then on, the Mets played solidly enough on defense to pick up their 11th win in 13 games and their sixth consecutive victory.