Matt Harvey Became an Ace in Game 5 of World Series, Wanting the Ball For 9th Correct

If any finger pointing should be done, and frankly, there should be none, for the New York Mets loss in game 5 of the World Series, it should not be at starter Matt Harvey. Wanting the ball in the 9th inning was when he transformed from a very good pitcher into an ace. It was his game and he is the leader of that staff.

That he gave up a walk and a double were unfortunate but not everyone wins in sports. Even Scott Boras, Harvey's agent who famously caused the pitcher plenty of grief during the regular season when he suggested a 189 innings limit because Harvey was coming off Tommy John surgery, has to like Harvey demanding the ball. In spite of losing, the Mets ultimately won. There was not a manager alive who would have said no to him in the dugout.

Matt Harvey, in a Ken Rosenthal column for Fox Sports, had this to say, "I wanted the ball. In that situation, I did everything I could to go back out there. (Collins) obviously wanted to go to Familia. The way the game was going, the way I felt, I felt I wanted to control the game and go back out there for the ninth."

Rosenthal, for his part, agreed that there wasn't a manager alive who would have pulled Harvey, "Terry Collins told me, in his postgame interview on FOX, 'I'm going to second-guess myself for a long time.' He shouldn't. He can't. He did what every right-thinking manager would have done."

The naysayers have no concept of the history of the game of baseball and how much a positive Harvey's refusal to come out was. In a New York Daily News article, the author had this to say, "Inflamed Mets hurler Matt "No way" Harvey cost the team Game 5 of the World Series Sunday night when he overruled his manager and headed back out to the hill in the ninth inning - only to collapse." If Harvey takes this lesson and learns from, as Kansas City did after they were beat by the San Francisco Giants in 2014, the reporters that called Harvey selfish will eat their words.