http://thereadzone.com/2013/05/09/on-matt-harveys-tuesday-night-brush-with-perfection-was-it-the-best-all-time/
That got me to thinking – is this the best single start by a Met in the last ten years? In my lifetime? All time?
Everyone who has read about Harvey’s perfect game bid over the last few days knows that the last Met to carry a bid as far was Rick Reed in 1998. But Reed did not finish the way Harvey did. To satisfy my own curiosity, I took a look at a couple of Mets players and performances to see if anything stacked up.
It turns out Harvey’s game score of 97 is one of the highest that a Met has ever tallied in a nine-inning game. But how does it compare, in context, to some of the other most dominant Mets’ pitching performances in history? To take a look, I pulled up box scores from a) generally dominant Mets pitching seasons and b) historic Mets pitching performances that I could remember off the top of my head. Although this list is not exhaustive, I tried to include the best. They are ranked in order of personal preference.
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#7 John Maine, 2007 – Game Score: 89Sept 29 v FLA, 7.2ip, 1h, 2bb, 14k
I was also fortunate enough to be in attendance for this game. John Maine, in the second to last game of the season, mowed down the Marlins to keep the Mets’ season alive. Maine, like his contemporary Oliver Perez, was always an enigma, capable of using that electric high fastball to rack up strikeouts but lacking the control and secondary stuff to put together a dominant season. He managed a Game Score of 89 in only 7.2 innings, keeping the season alive for one more day.
