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Tonight, the Phillies start a four game series against the New York Mets. On Thursday they were supposed to face young Mets phenom Matt Harvey, which I found both exhilarating and depressing -- he's a fantastic pitcher who is a joy to watch, but the Phillies will be lifelessly swinging their useless bats against his pitches and looking foolish doing it.
Unfortunately, they won't get an opportunity to face him this series, or again in 2013. Matt Harvey has been placed on the DL with a partially torn UCL in his right elbow and has been shut down for the season. It's not known yet if he'll need Tommy John surgery -- that determination will be made further down the line. The Mets have not yet announced who will start Thursday's game in place of Harvey.
I'm not sure what the Mets did to deserve this. Did Omar Minaya make a deal with Satan that is just now coming due? Did Willie Randolph's anger finally form a sentient anger-being that roams Citi Field, looking for fresh talent to munch on? Ok, probably none of those things. It's just luck. Bad, terrible, unfortunate luck. There is no blame to place here. Shit happens. SI's Jay Jaffe makes this great point:
Matt Harvey had thrown fewer than 100 pitches in 3 of last 6 starts, hadn't gone above 110 since June 21. Sometimes they just get hurt.
— Jay Jaffe (@jay_jaffe) August 26, 2013
It's a low down dirty shame that this is happening to Matt Harvey. We here at TGP wish him a full and speedy recovery, and we hope he'll be around to embarrass the Phillies for years to come. And of course, we send our sympathies to our colleagues at Amazin' Avenue. Here's their initial story on Harvey's injury, which I urge you to read. They'll have full coverage on the Harvey injury, so visit www.amazinavenue.com for up-to-the-minute Matt Harvey news.