With a familiar tomahawk chop of a swing and a two-handed follow-through, it looked for a moment as if Mike Piazza had momentarily stepped out of retirement and into the batter’s box for the Mets to deliver a two-run homer to left field.
But it was Matt Harvey — yes, the pitcher — who had transformed into a stunning Piazza doppelgänger.
It was as if Harvey, who had never hit a big league home run, had simply grown tired of the fruitless wait to see whether his teammates could provide any offense.
To that point, more than four innings into Saturday afternoon’s 4-2 Mets win, Arizona’s Patrick Corbin had struck out five and surrendered just two hits.