Matt Harvey had another rough start on Tuesday night, and the New York Mets pitcher quickly gathered his belongings after his team’s 7-4 loss and left the clubhouse before the media had a chance to speak with him. Some of his teammates are not supporting the decision to snub reporters.
After New York’s 2-1 win over the Washington Nationals on Wednesday, Mets captain David Wright told Mike Puma of the New York Post that he would like to see Harvey show more accountability.
“Obviously, Harvey is going through a rough stretch, I think we’ve all been there,” Wright said. “With that being said, I think the consensus is we should all be accountable for what we do on the baseball field.
“All of us like coming in here and talking when we have good games and a few of us, myself included, enjoy coming in here and talking when we don’t play well. Accountability is big and I think [Harvey] just had a bit of a lapse in judgement.”
Harvey has allowed 16 earned runs in his past 13.1 innings. He simply isn’t pitching well, but the team is sticking with him and refusing to skip his turn in the rotation. As long as the Mets are giving him the ball, Wright doesn’t think Harvey should be avoiding his postgame responsibilities.
“A lot of us don’t necessarily agree with what he did, but we take this game very personally, and when we don’t play at a level we’re accustomed to, sometimes we make decisions that we regret,” he added. Him, the stature that he has built, the last thing you want … you want to be known as an accountable player. You want to be a stand-up guy, and this is a little blip on the radar screen. Hopefully we all learn from it and don’t make the same mistake again.”
That says a lot that a player would essentially side with the media over a teammate. This isn’t the first time Harvey has snubbed reporters, though he wasn’t exactly sulking the last time. If Harvey gets knocked around again in his next start, the Mets could give him some time off.
