HOUSTON -- It has been two years since the Mets last saw vintage Matt Harvey -- a force capable of stinging the upper 90s with his fastball, supplementing it with a high-80s slider and packaging it all into one of baseball's best pitchers. As Harvey has struggled to recover from multiple major surgeries, his velocity has flagged in kind. Reports from his recent Minor League rehab starts had him topping out around 93 mph.
None of that will matter, Harvey insisted this week, when he returns from the disabled list to start the first game of the Mets' doubleheader Saturday against the Astros.