Mets Sleepwalk Through a Loss to the Giants as Harvey Begins Easy Throwing

David Wright spent his off-day Thursday at his father-in-law's lake house in the Poconos. He did some fishing, watched his wife's half-siblings go wakeboarding, and decompressed. That also meant staying off his phone as the nonwaiver trade deadline passed. He checked the phone later and saw that the Mets had done nothing.

That epitomized the Mets' current sleepy state. They aren't rebuilding, but they are not yet competing. They will use the final two months of the season to evaluate. Their 5-1 loss Friday to the San Francisco Giants dropped their record to 52-57.

The Mets might make their move in the off-season. General Manager Sandy Alderson could be more inclined to trade his prospects by then. Wright said the Mets were nearing the point when they would be 'a piece or two away.'

In the meantime, at least the Mets could track the progress of Matt Harvey, their recovering ace. He threw 15 to 20 pitches off the slope of the mound in the bullpen Friday, at about 60 percent effort, just more than nine months after undergoing Tommy John surgery. Afterward, sitting in the dugout, Harvey beamed.

'It's kind of like riding a bike,' he said. 'It felt pretty normal.'

His official throwing program wasn't scheduled to start until Tuesday, at the team's facility in Port St. Lucie, Fla.. But Friday marked the first day he was allowed to throw off a mound, and he was too excited to wait. Dan Warthen, the pitching coach, watched him throw in the bullpen from a few feet away, his hands on his hips.

Referring to Harvey, Alderson called it 'an abbreviated effort on his part.'

Throughput Harvey's rehabilitation, he and the Mets have not always seen eye to eye. The Mets wanted him to conduct his rehab exclusively at their training complex in Port St. Lucie, Fla., whereas Harvey preferred to split his time between there and New York. And while Harvey wanted to throw off the mound last month, the Mets held him back to be cautious. Harvey won out on the former issue, the Mets the latter.

The throwing program now, however, will be in Florida and will last about eight weeks. By the end of it, the Mets' goal is for Harvey to pitch in a low-pressure game situation. They fear the adrenaline of a major-league game would be too much.

Harvey apparently disagrees. He told The New York Post this week that he wanted to pitch one inning this year, presumably as a symbolic event. He reiterated Friday that he is 'not writing 2014 out,' but he qualified it by saying his health came first.

'Obviously,' he noted, 'I can't write myself in the lineup.'

Without him, the Mets are stuck in their current purgatory state. On Friday, Ryan Vogelsong, the Giants' 37-year-old journeyman starter, held them hitless for the first five innings. Jon Niese, the Mets' starter, was tagged for five runs (three earned) in eight innings.

The Giants are established contenders with a winning culture. Brendan Crawford and Hunter Pence both tripled in the seventh, putting the game out of reach. The Mets finished with two hits. Their lone bright spot was a solo home run from Lucas Duda. It was his 20th on the season, and his sixth in his last nine games.

Before the game, Wright preached patience. He reasoned that staying put at the deadline made sense. 'It's easy to say go get this player or go get that player,' he said. 'But, you know, you don't give up everything you've worked hard for the last however many years, acquiring this young talent, and just give it all away.'

Asked how he expected his team to finish the season, Manager Terry Collins said: 'I'm trying to stay away from numbers. There's enough numbers out there right now.'

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