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Matt Harvey's record fell to 9-5 as his E.R.A. crept up to 2.27.
The indicators were plain: sliders that spun but did not swerve, fastballs that whizzed but failed to explode, changeups that floated along capricious paths.
Even Matt Harvey, it turns out, is susceptible to fatigue.
Harvey, the Mets' ace, gave up 13 hits Saturday afternoon — the most any pitcher on the team has allowed this season — as his team fell, 3-0, to the Detroit Tigers at Citi Field. Despite the hits total, it was a fine start: he allowed only two runs over six and two-thirds innings. But Harvey was markedly unhappy after the game, acknowledging he was tired but blaming himself for being unable to discover a workaround.
"I'm getting pretty tired, but so is everybody," said Harvey, who is trying to finish his first full major league season. "You have to work through it and have to deal with it. It's a long season, and you need to figure out how to get things done. My performance the last couple starts has been pretty terrible."
Terrible would be an overstatement. Harvey threw his first complete-game shutout earlier this month.
Since then, though, he has lost his untouchable aura. He gave up four runs and eight hits during an Aug. 13 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers. And he threw only 86 pitches during a scrappy outing Aug. 18 against the San Diego Padres.
The entire game Saturday seemed a struggle, too, as the hits piled up and the runners packed the bases.
Harvey gave up a run-scoring double in the second inning to Max Scherzer, the opposing starter, whose last hit came during the 2009 season. Austin Jackson's infield single later that inning sent home the only other run Harvey allowed. The Tigers added a run on a ninth-inning sacrifice fly.
The Mets' hitters went silent against Scherzer, who notched 11 strikeouts while improving his record to 19-1.
"As we've seen the last couple nights, we're taking strikes and swinging at balls," Mets Manager Terry Collins said. "That's not the approach you want."
Collins praised Harvey's resilience. On paper and on the scoreboard, he gave his team a chance to win.
But Collins said it was obvious from the early innings that Harvey was not at full strength.
Earlier this season, Harvey's slider — 93 miles per hour and sharp — seemed almost unfair to hitters. In his last few starts, though, it has not had the same bite.
"What we saw today is a guy who's working as hard as he can, but you're seeing the effect of his first full season up here," Collins said.
"It's a grind, and he's doing the best he can."
Collins has long emphasized the club's desire to have Harvey and Zack Wheeler, the Mets' other young pitching star, make it through a complete season. It is important, the Mets reason, that the two understand simply what it feels like, what a physical test it can be, to pitch this long.
Harvey pitched 1691/3 innings last year between Class AAA and the major leagues. With Saturday's start included, he is at 1781/3 innings this season. The next month, then, will be uncharted territory, a chance for him to ascertain his bodily limitations and explore ways to succeed beyond pure physicality.
"Everything's a learning process," Harvey said. "I've never been through this before, so obviously paying attention to it and figuring out ways to move past it is all part of learning and growing as a ballplayer."
INSIDE PITCH
Third baseman David Wright completed some basic running drills at Citi Field as he continued to rehabilitate a strained right hamstring, which has kept him on the disabled list since Aug. 3.
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