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Adam Hunger-USA TODAY Sports
★★★
Welcome to May, the first day of the season where we can no longer shrug and say, “Well, it’s only April.” Mathematically, everything matters the same now as it did yesterday, but it just has that little extra bit of importance attached to it, yeah? Well, no, not really, but when the Mets and Nationals are fighting for NL East supremacy and we get to watch Matt Harvey take on Max Scherzer, it certainly feels more important than April did.
Harvey has looked wonderful in his four starts since returning from Tommy John surgery, and he’s a major part of why the Mets stand in first place with a 15-8 record as of this writing -- they’ve won all four of his starts, and he stuck around long enough in each to pick up the W. Scherzer has pitched much better than Harvey -- his ERA is less than half of Harvey’s at 1.26, and he’s allowed as many runs (4) as walks in 28 innings -- but the Nats haven’t been nearly as supportive, so he’s just 1-2 on the year.
As much as a team can need a series in May, the Nationals need this one against the Mets. They are 10-13 and in fourth place in the NL East. While there is a whole lot of season left to catch up, not letting the Mets get way out in front would be to their benefit. They already won the series opener on Thursday 8-2, but Matt Harvey didn’t pitch that game.
- Mike Trout helped the Angels get back to .500 with this game-ending -- and game-saving! -- catch over the A’s.
- The Red Sox rotation has an ugly ERA, and that’s being kind. Their underlying numbers are far, far better, though, and history tells us that teams in this scenario in April often see stabilization as the season goes on. As things stand, the Sox are just a game back of the Yankees in spite of their rotation, and without their full lineup in place just yet they’re weathering this storm.
- It would help if Mike Napoli would start hitting, but that’s more likely to happen than not.
- How long should the Giants give Casey McGehee, the replacement for Pablo Sandoval, before calling it quits and finding an alternative at third?
- Impressed by Dodgers’ rookie Joc Pederson? There are more exciting kids where he came from, and now one of them, Corey Seager, is a step closer to the bigs.
- The Mets promoted second baseman Dilson Herrera to the majors, which also allows them to stick Daniel Murphy at third base until David Wright returns from the disabled list.
- Carlos Beltran has not been good with the Yankees, either last year or in this one. One wonders if they feel the temptation to cut bait on him as the Marlins recently did with Jarrod Saltalamacchia.
- Remember Ricky Romero? At this point, you might not remember how he used to be, when he was an effective pitcher who could throw strikes.
- Say goodbye to April by figuring out who from that month is likely to keep on performing well the rest of the year.
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