The Mets held an All-Star press conference yesterday at City Hall for the July 16 game at Citi Field. On the cover of the Mets' 2013 yearbook are the 48 players in Mets history who have been All-Stars. Matt Harvey would make it 49.
There is something about The Matt Harvey Show that brings out the best in the Mets, and last night's wild, 7-3 10-inning victory over the Dodgers at Citi Field was no exception.
David Wright's two-out single in the ninth scored Mike Baxter to tie the game at 3-3 and kept Harvey from getting the tough loss. Jordany Valdespin won it in the 10th with a walk-off grand slam, posting the Mets first walk-off grand slam since 1991 when Kevin McReynolds turned the trick.
Paul J. Bereswill
Matt Harvey
These Mets are a different team with Harvey on the mound. They are 5-0 in his starts and 5-9 in all other games.
It's all about winning for Harvey and that rubs off on the rest of the team.
"It was awesome,'' Harvey said of the Valdespin's moon shot over the right-field wall off Dodger reliever Josh Wall. "I was sitting next to [Valdespin] during that inning and [bench coach] Bob Geren came up to him and said, 'They are going to walk [Lucas Duda] and you are going to go out there and win the game.' And sure enough he did.''
Valdespin came into the game in the eighth as a pinch-hitter and remained calm in his game-winning at-bat.
"They teach me to be patient and hit my pitch hard; that's what I did,'' Valdespin said.
The Mets need more offense and that means more at-bats for Valdespin.
Harvey surrendered an opposite-field two-run home run to Matt Kemp in the sixth that just cleared the wall in right.
Because of that hit, Harvey was hard on himself.
"In my mind I [stunk] and I have to do better," he said. "Tonight was about winning that game and we did that.''
Harvey still has one more win than the rest of the starting staff combined. His four wins are tied with the Cardinals' Adam Wainwright for most in the NL. His ERA is 1.54.
He owns 109 strikeouts over his first 15 career games. The only Mets with more strikeouts over their first 15 games are Dwight Gooden (113) and Nolan Ryan (112).
Good company.
Mets broadcaster and former first baseman Keith Hernandez has seen a lot of dominant pitchers, and though he is not fond of making comparisons, he did put Harvey in the same sentence as Tom Seaver.
Earlier this week in a phone conversation I asked Seaver about Harvey and Tom Terrific said he really doesn't know that much about Harvey but added, "I'm a voracious readers of the box scores and his numbers have been pretty impressive.''
Last night's line for Harvey read: Six innings, three runs, four hits, one walk, and seven strikeouts. He wasn't Superman, but in the words of Terry Collins, "He pitched another very, very good game.''
Harvey also doubled and scored the Mets' first run. He showed a tremendous change-up, meaning his fourth pitch is becoming a major weapon.
Noted thinking-man's catcher John Buck: "They came out swinging aggressive and we both recognized that and went to the secondary pitches early. He pitched rather than threw and that's what makes him so good. He has the ability to throw the curve ball, slider, change-up along with the fastball, whatever he wants. He reminds me of Zack Greinke because he throws 98 when he wants, throws a slider at 90-91 like Zack and Zack threw curve ball and a change-up whenever he wanted.
"There's not many people that can throw that hard and pitch as well.''
"Matt Harvey expects a lot of himself,'' Collins added. "He's as prepared as anyone I've ever been around. He's been planning for this.''
If he continues to pitch like he has over his first five starts then come July 16 plan on The Matt Harvey Show being on the mound for the All-Star Game.
kevin.kernan@nypost.com
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