Matt Harvey's first start post-controversy a mess

Terry Collins predicted brilliance from Matt Harvey.

On Tuesday afternoon the manager went so far as to say, “I wouldn’t be surprised if he threw his best game of the year."

Instead Harvey delivered a mediocre start made worse by his defense, leaving us all to wonder if the firestorm that he and his agent, Scott Boras, created over his innings limit affected him in some way.

In the end, Harvey’s linescore looked worse than he pitched, as he gave up seven runs in 5 1/3 innings, matching a career high. All the runs were earned but that was misleading, as Yoenis Cespedes’ error turned a bases-loaded single in the sixth inning into a bases-clearing hit, ending Harvey’s night.

Nevertheless, the Mets’ righthander clearly wasn’t sharp, to be sure. He gave up eight singles and issued two walks, leaving too many fastballs in the middle of the plate.

He did seem to be settling into a rhythm after giving up three runs in the first two innings, but then fell apart in the sixth. Even without the error, Harvey would have been trailing 4-1 with the bases loaded and one out in the sixth.

If you’re looking for a bright side, well, the meltdown in the sixth may have saved a couple of ticks on the all-important Scott Boras innings meter.

But this wasn’t what the Mets were expecting. Even David Wright had all but predicted a dominant start for Harvey a day earlier, saying, “I like our chances with an angry Matt Harvey on the hill."

Harvey, of course, was angry about the fan and media reaction to his refusal to say on Saturday that he would be there for the Mets to pitch in the post-season, as he repeatedly evaded questions on the subject.

Since then he has insisted he will pitch in October if his team gets there, but that’s only if the Mets abide by an innings limit somewhere around 180, likely skipping him for at least two starts in the next couple of weeks.

Suffice it to say the situation is lingering.

Collins on Tuesday showed his own anger about the situation, though his was clearly directed at Boras for going public about the innings limit last week.

“I’m not going to get in the middle of this but he was stuck in the middle," Collins said of Harvey. “And I thought it was tremendously unfair. That’s not his job. His job is to pitch, and our job is to help him with the other stuff.

“He got stuck in the middle and he thought he needed to say something when he didn’t need to say a word. He just needed to go pitch. I’ll take responsibility for that. I suggested he not talk. I didn’t suggest hard enough. I should have told him, ‘you’re not talking.'"

In fact, a source said it was Boras who advised Harvey to stick to a script when he spoke to the media about innings-limits on Saturday, and wound up looking bad as he evaded questions about whether he would be there to pitch if the Mets reached the post-season.

In any case, Collins’ primary point of contention is that all the innings-limit discussion should have been handled behind closed doors.

Perhaps even more significantly, the Mets are still furious that Boras waited so long to make an issue of this, perhaps scaring Harvey with information about pitchers who have needed a second Tommy John surgery that the agent says was due to overuse in their first year back.

The Mets, however, contend that they’ve been ultra-cautious with Harvey, and were willing to push him toward 200 innings only because of the extra rest he received during the season and the skipped starts they had planned.

“But unfortunately," Collins said, “somebody else had to get in the news and it’s created a mess for all of us in the middle of a pennant race.

“But as we ‘ve all said, he’s gotta go pitch. If he pitches his game, people have short memories. They’ll say this guy is legit. And hopefully that’s what happens."

Instead Harvey is likely to be subject to more harsh criticism from fans, since he may only pitch once more during the regular season _ likely against the Yankees at Citi Field in 10 days.

And that should make for quite a scene, if Mets fans come out to boo him with the type of venom they’ve directed at him on Twitter and other social media outlets.

As it is, all of New York was watching on Tuesday night, and don’t think the baseball world wasn’t paying close attention as well.

The story continues to be far-reaching with Cardinals manager Mike Matheny weighing in on Tuesday, telling reporters, “it’s a sad state of affairs when an agent is dictating things to an organization."

The Mets hoped Harvey would quiet all the talk with his performance on Tuesday night.

Now what?