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Mets get a boost from Matz. Alas, it doesn't matter

Until about 4 p.m. Saturday, the divorce between the New York Mets and Matt Harvey remained something of an abstract concept.

There were his jersey and cap on a hanger, and his shoes laid out neatly. There was the Jay Bruce giveaway T-shirt draped over his unoccupied chair.

It hardly looked different from when Harvey was merely in the weight room or out on the field stretching.

But just as Saturday evening’s game came into view, a clubhouse attendant finally began removing Harvey’s belongings. With that, the breakup seemed more real — as did the need for Steven Matz to once again try to become a useful member of the Mets’ starting rotation.

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It is a rotation, after all, with only two reliable starters, Noah Syndergaard and Jacob deGrom. Everyone else, Matz included, is a question mark. As was Harvey, for that matter, until he was shown the door.

Matz’s last outing had been a disaster in which he could not make it through four innings against the St. Louis Cardinals. It had prompted Mets manager Mickey Callaway to question Matz’s poise in stressful game situations and even hedge on whether he would remain in the rotation.

A subsequent episode of back stiffness caused the injury-prone Matz to miss a start. As a result, 10 days passed between that rocky game in St. Louis and his return to the mound on Saturday night at Citi Field, against the Colorado Rockies.

“His stuff is there,” Callaway said before the game. “He can be an elite left-handed pitcher if he has the right mentality to overcome things that happen during the game. We’ll find out tonight.”

Whether it was the extra rest, the manager’s subtle verbal jabs or his underlying talent, Matz came up with his finest performance of the season, limiting the Rockies to one run on three hits — Nolan Arenado’s first-inning home run — over six innings.

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That was the good news. The bad? The Mets lost yet again, by a 2-0 score.

It was their fifth straight loss, their eighth defeat in the past 10 games and the third time they have been shut out in four games. Their 11-1 start to the season now seems like nothing more than a tease as they continue to sink lower in the National League East standings — they are now in third place, at 17-14 — and back toward a .500 record, or maybe worse.

Set against those increasingly alarming negatives was the heartening performance of Matz. He had unraveled against the Cardinals after making a throwing error, which had prompted Callaway, a former pitching coach, to show him a between-pitches routine designed to keep him focused under pressure.

“It’s just basically taking a step back, fixing my hat, my glove, resetting and getting back on the mound,” Matz said. “It’s easy to do when everything’s going your way and you’re getting quick outs. But when you walk a guy or go 2-0 on the pitcher, the game can speed up really fast on you.”

He said the routine given to him by Callaway “really helped me slow myself down.”

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Callaway said he was particularly impressed on Saturday that Matz was able to rebound from Arenado’s home run — a towering fly ball that landed on the apple beyond the center-field fence — as well as emerge unscathed from innings in which he had a runner at second base with one out or less. To Callaway, all of that demonstrated a more aggressive presence on the mound than Matz had shown in his previous five starts this season.

“I saw it in his face and in his demeanor and the way he went about his business tonight from pitch one,” Callaway said. “I felt there was a real edge to him that I haven’t seen before.”

Not so for the Mets’ offense, which has been outscored by 28-7 over the last four games. Three times on Saturday night, the Mets got a runner to second base with nothing to show for it. Adrian Gonzalez grounded out to end a fourth-inning threat, Todd Frazier lined into a double play to end the sixth and Jay Bruce flied out to the wall in left to end the eighth.

Callaway, who sat the struggling Michael Conforto and started Brandon Nimmo in center field instead, indicated he may try some more juggling in an effort to jump-start the offense. He was able to help Matz. Now it is the lineup’s turn.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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WALLACE MATTHEWS © 2018 The New York Times

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