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NEW YORK -- Jacob deGrom looks to keep the New York Mets on the right track when he pitches against the Milwaukee Brewers on Saturday at 4:10 p.m. ET at Citi Field. DeGrom (3-1, 2.50 ERA) opposes right-hander Zach Davies (1-3, 5.58). SATURDAY’S NEWS REPORTS:
Not only will Matt Harvey not be skipped against the Washington Nationals next week, he may start a day early. A day after allowing a career-high nine runs in a career-low 2 2/3 innings, Harvey convinced team officials to let him work out of his funk while remaining active and in the rotation. Because Harvey threw only 61 pitches on Thursday in the abbreviated outing, manager Terry Collins indicated there is a chance the Dark Knight pitches a day early -- Monday’s series opener at Nationals Park -- rather than the following day on turn. Read more in the Post, Daily News, Newsday, Journal, Record and at NJ.com and MLB.com. Agent Scott Boras, who represents Harvey, tells Ken Rosenthal at Foxsports.com regarding Harvey’s lull: “I’ve been through this many times with Tommy John pitchers. I’m just telling you on May 29 of last year, Stephen Strasburg came off a month of May when he had a 1-3 record and (10.13) ERA, and his overall ERA was 6.55. … Why are there unknowns? Because we had a pitcher from zero to (216) innings after a 17-month rehab. And by the way, I want to be clear: Matt Harvey wanted to pitch. The organization is not at fault. This is baseball. When an organization is in the playoffs and World Series, the whole thing, unless you’ve got remedies for it long before it happens, this is what you do.” Boras added to columnist Kevin Kernan in the Post: “On balls in play, his batting average is like 100 points higher than it normally is, which means he has had bad luck.” Kernan in the Post also gets a scout’s take on Harvey, while columnist Anthony Rieber in Newsday weighs in on the Dark Knight. National League Rookie of the Year candidate Steven Matz improved to 6-0 with a 1.35 ERA in his last six starts as the Mets beat the Brewers, 3-2, in Friday’s series opener. After skipping his last turn with left forearm soreness, Matz limited the Brewers to a two-run homer by Chris Carter in the opening frame of a seven-inning outing. Michael Conforto delivered a go-ahead two-run homer in the sixth against Wily Peralta. Even with recording only five outs in a disastrous season debut, Matz leads all qualified rookies this season with six wins and a 2.81 ERA. Matz is now 10-1 in 13 career regular-season starts. He is the first player in franchise history to win 10 of his first 11 major league decisions. He is the second left-hander in the big leagues since 1900 to win 10 of his first 13 major league starts, joining Kazuhisa Ishii (10-2 in 2002 with the Los Angeles Dodgers). Matz became the first Mets pitcher to win six straight starts since R.A. Dickey during a Cy Young season in 2012. Jeurys Familia, who was struck with a comebacker in the left knee and had it iced after the game, improved to 14-for-14 in save opportunities. Read game recaps in the Post, Daily News, Times, Newsday, Record and at NJ.com and MLB.com. Jim Baumbach in Newsday speaks with Darryl Strawberry about his relationship with late ’86 teammate Gary Carter. Strawberry will be at Citi Field next weekend for the 30th anniversary celebration of the Mets’ last championship. Writes Baumbach: “In perhaps the most unlikeliest of twists, Strawberry said he wants Mets fans to know that he, too, will be representing Carter during that ceremony. Because really, that’s what Strawberry says his goal is each day -- to live up to the man that he says Carter used to tell him in the 1980s that he could be, if only he tried. ‘Gary Carter is the No. 1 light for me,’ said Strawberry, 54. ‘He was the light in the darkness.’” Columnist Joel Sherman in the Post revisits the trade that wasn’t -- Carlos Gomez for Zack Wheeler and Wilmer Flores. Ex-Mets Kirk Nieuwenhuis and Carlos Torres were presented with 2015 NL championship rings in a private ceremony on Friday. Binghamton scored seven seventh-inning runs, highlighted by L.J. Mazzilli’s three-run double, but couldn’t hold a late lead in an 8-7 loss to Akron. Josh Prevost limited Daytona to one run in 6 1/3 innings, but was on the wrong side of a pitchers’ duel as St. Lucie lost, 1-0. J.C. Rodriguez’s eighth-inning throwing error contributed to an unearned run in Columbia’s 2-1 loss to Charleston. Read the full minor league recap here. Bartolo Colon has a bobblehead doll that also features a bobble stomach, Darren Rovell writes at ESPN.com. David Wright had a scheduled game off Friday. The Mets are now trying to rest Wright in the night game before a day game, rather than vice versa, in order to see if that is better on his balky back. Kirsten Fleming in the Post reviews Lenny Dykstra’s recently created and provocative Twitter account. From the bloggers … Faith and Fear has no clue regarding Harvey, either. … Mets Report wonders if Harvey is a supernova. … Legends on Deck visits the Mets’ complex in the Dominican Republic.
BIRTHDAYS: Tom Martin turns 46. TWEET OF THE DAY:
YOU’RE UP: Should the Mets have Harvey pitch on short rest or standard rest against the Nationals next week … or neither?
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