Indians are teeing off on Matt Harvey, and the advanced stats prove it

The Indians went to town on Royals pitcher Matt Harvey on Tuesday.

It was an absolutely brutal Tuesday night start for Matt Harvey of the Kansas City Royals. The Cleveland Indians had no mercy.

Harvey made it through 1.1 innings before being pulled. He gave up six hits and five runs in that short span.

Dan Szymborski of FanGraphs pulled up the advanced stats to reveal just how horrific Harvey’s pitching was.

Matt Harvey had a very rough night

Harvey faced 10 batters. Four of them made contact with exit velocity above 100 miles per hour. Three of those were home runs. Only one hit was below 80 mph. That, at least, resulted in an out.

The stats make it clear. It was a stunningly bad outing for a pitcher who was once an All-Star. It’s certainly not the start the Royals were hoping for their new pitcher.

He debuted on Aug. 19 with three innings against the Reds. In that game, he gave up three runs in three innings. To be fair, that first appearance after being called up by Kansas City came 13 months since his last pitching appearance. There was bound to be some rust.

Except things didn’t get any better in his second start on Aug. 25. He allowed five hits and four runs in 2.2 innings pitched. That trajectory is heading in the exact wrong direction.

Then again, the Royals knew what they were taking a chance on when they picked up Harvey as a free agent. He had been dumped the Angels in 2019 when he posted a 7.09 ERA in 12 games.

Harvey was the NL Comeback Player of the Year in 2015. It certainly doesn’t feel like another comeback award is in the cards.

Kansas City might have been hoping for some Harvey magic to put some light in their season, but the 2020 campaign remains a bit of a downer. The 14-21 Royals are last in the AL Central.