Matt Harvey Dominate Braves, Strikes Out 13 in 4-3 Victory

Matt Harvey is a monster.

Even if the final score (4-3) didn’t indicate the level of Harvey’s greatness on Tuesday afternoon, the Braves lineup would certainly attest to his unhittable performance. Harvey carried a no-hitter into the 7th inning, before Jason Heyward reached on a perfectly placed infield single, and when all was said and done, Harvey had struck out 13 Braves over his 7 frames.

While his dominance stopped at the end of the 7th inning, the fact that he allowed 3 baserunners in the 8th inning (2 of which scored) couldn’t override his top-level performance earlier in the game. The right-hander now leads the National League in strikeouts with 115, and he has done so with a downright absurd strikeout rate of 9.95 per 9. On the flip side, Harvey’s control is also tremendous, and although he walked 3 on Tuesday afternoon, his walk rate is sub-2.00 per 9.

It is frankly a shame that Harvey’s pitch count seemed to get the better of him in the 8th inning, because if he was removed after 7, his stat line would’ve been far more sparkling. With that said, he looked like every bit of the best pitcher in the NL for the first 100 pitches, and he continues to be one of two bright spots (along with David Wright) on the hapless Mets roster.

At 24 years old, Matt Harvey is unquestionably one of the best pitchers in baseball, and he showed that again on Tuesday. With “bigger” names like Stephen Strasburg garnering the attention, all Harvey has done is succeed at the big-league level, and there are exactly zero signs that he will slow down.