Matt Harvey: Former Tar Heel to Start World Series
Matt Harvey of the New York Mets is a Tar Heel. That is sometimes easy to forget with the NBA and NFL being easier to spot places for Tar Heel veterans. The recent run of success for the Tar Heel baseball program and placed a few into important positions around the league.
No position will be more important than Harvey’s on Tuesday Night. The Mets starter will be the opening starter in the World Series against the Kansas City Royals.
Harvey, who one time was the ace on the Mets staff, has gone through a strange year. He has had surgery and argued about inning restrictions with his team. He has dated supermodels. He went 13-8 with 2.71 ERA. He has 2-0 record in the playoffs.
Yet those good stats have been overshadowed by the pitchers around him like Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndergaard. deGrom is real the ace of this staff, and could have been the game 1 starter for the Mets over Harvey. However Harvey’s elevation has a little rhythm to it and a little strategy.
First, Harvey would have been the guy on the mound for the fifth game with the Cubs. There was no fifth game with the Cubs, so it is Harvey’s spot in the rotation. It would seem only natural to go ahead and start him in the next game.
Second, Harvey going game 1 will shift deGrom to game 2. The Royals will probably start their best pitcher in game 1. That would give the Mets a superior pitcher matchup in the next two games and possibly set them up to win the series by pitching.
Harvey pitched three years for the North Carolina Tar Heels going 22-7 for the duration. He had a WHIP of 1.20 and an ERA of 3.09 in his final season with the Diamond Heels in 2010.