Mets counting on Harvey to save their season

NEW YORK -- Somewhere in the not-too-distant future, perhaps after another year of enhancing his value in the wake of Tommy John surgery, Matt Harvey could be the central figure in baseball's answer to the Herschel Walker trade.

Football fans old enough certainly remember the staggering impact of that one. The Dallas Cowboys dealt Walker to the Minnesota Vikings in 1989 as part of a package that landed them eight draft choices and a dynasty to be named later.

No, baseball's elders don't allow member clubs to trade draft picks (though they should). But a team with an embarrassment of young pitching riches is most definitely allowed to ship out one of its aces for a circle of high-powered offensive players and/or prospects to complement the arms retained, especially when that ace is a high-maintenance act with a higher-maintenance agent.

Of course, Harvey could make it damn near impossible for theNew York Metsto consummate their biggest trade since kissing Tom Seaver goodbye. He could compile enough signature moments to force the franchise to keep him despite any mounting body of evidence suggesting it shouldn't.

He could, in effect, prove he's worth the trouble and the money over the long haul.

Sunday night at Citi Field, Harvey will confront the kind of challenge that, if conquered, would harden his standing as a future untouchable. His Metsdown 3-1 to the Kansas City Royals, Harvey will pitch Game 5 of the World Series with a chance to save the season, and to send this series careening back to Missouri with all sorts of possibilities in play.

Jacob deGrom would go in a prospective Game 6, and Noah Syndergaard would go in a prospective Game 7. There are worse sudden-death scenarios to lean on if Harvey proves tough enough to outpitch his uninspiring Game 1 self.

'He's been excellent this year," David Wright said after the Royals took Game 4 by a 5-3 count. "It seems like when he makes a below-average Matt Harvey start, he comes back the next start a lot better. He's seen this lineup. He has seen what they're all about. I know he's one of the best at making adjustments."

He'll need to make a lot of them against the Royals. The Mets handed Harvey a 3-1 lead in the middle of Game 1, and he responded by giving Kansas City two runs in the sixth inning of what would be a devastating 14th-inning loss. Harvey was afraid to throw his fastball that night against the sport's best fastball-hitting team. If he shows up afraid again at Citi Field, another two dozen Mets will be joining Yoenis Cespedes on the golf course first thing Monday morning.

Harvey confirmed that a pitcher "can figure some things out" when he sees an opposing lineup a second time in a series. "And obviously," he said, "Noah showed that they are a team that can swing and miss."

First-pitch message or no first-pitch message, Harvey needs to do in Game 5 what Syndergaard did in Game 3. He needs to perform like he did in the sweep of theChicago Cubsin the NLCS, and then some.

"Matt has to give us one of those great outings he's capable of giving us," Mets manager Terry Collins said. "We're in a tough situation, but we're not dead yet."

They were close enough on Halloween night, judging from the haunted expressions worn by Fred Wilpon, Mets owner, and Chris Christie, New Jersey governor and superfan, as they trudged past the losers' clubhouse. The Mets had a rookie, Michael Conforto, hit two homers in a single World Series game, and another rookie, Long Island's Steven Matz, pitch efficiently enough for a local-boy-makes-great angle, and none of it mattered.

Daniel Murphy, postseason hero, Bill Buckner-ed a slow grounder after Collins waited at least one batter too long to go to Jeurys Familia. Cespedes kicked around yet another loose ball in the outfield, then ended the game with an absurd baserunning decision that guaranteed a double play. All in all, the Mets' royal screw-ups allowed the Royals to laugh off their own Little League gaffe (Alex Rios helping a run score by thinking there were three outs when there were only two).

At his locker, Murphy searched hard for a source of comfort on what promised to be a restless night of sleep.

"We've got Matt going," he said, "so I think we're excited about that."

It wasn't long ago when nobody in the Mets' clubhouse was excited about Harvey going. The pitcher's agent, Scott Boras, hit the brakes on a dreamy postseason run by suddenly declaring his surgically-repaired client would hit a wall at 180 innings, and throw no more. Harvey didn't shoot down Boras' comments, not even close, and the ultimate tabloid storm in the ultimate tabloid town was born.

Harvey survived it, sort of, by backpedaling from the blowback at Deion Sanders speed, and by winning the NL East division clincher in Cincinnati. But when Harvey missed a mandatory workout before the postseason began, Mets fans were reminded that the new face of their franchise was closer to the Alex Rodriguez model than the Derek Jeter one.

Disputes over whether he should rehab in Port St. Lucie or in New York. Complaints about six-man rotations designed to spare his right arm, followed by suggestions that his right arm had been taxed too heavily to contribute in October. If nothing else, Harvey was revealing something that couldn't be found on a scout's radar gun: Once a diva, always a diva. Saturday afternoon, before watching his team lose Game 4, Harvey said that his bygone innings-limit concerns were "completely thrown out of the window," and that he burned to be a starter who consistently worked 230 innings a year. Harvey also praised Collins for supporting him at a time when it wasn't an easy thing to do.

"He did a great job of staying with me and offering guidance towards basically my teammates," Harvey said. "They always knew that I wanted to be out there."

Out of the Connecticut burbs, Harvey says he loves New York and everything it has to offer its young, rich, and famous. He is a regular at Rangers games at Madison Square Garden, and as he left Citi Field late Saturday night he planted a Knicks cap on his head (maybe not the best move for someone being asked to win a very big game).

But Harvey will be a free agent after the 2018 season, and the Mets know that Boras will go for broke like only he can. Will they trade him before it ever reaches that point and bank on deGrom, Syndergaard, Matz, and a recovering Zack Wheeler? Or will Harvey's greatness force the Mets to put up with his Harvey-ness without the benefit of a hometown discount?

If you happen to be searching for answers, Game 5 of the World Series is a pretty good place to start.