Mets’ Harvey on wanting the ball: ‘Not a quitter’

8:34 PM ET

WASHINGTON — New York Mets officials gave Matt Harvey the option of skipping a rematch with the Washington Nationals.

The Dark Knight’s response: No way.

So manager Terry Collins intends to hand Harvey the baseball on his standard turn on Tuesday at Nationals Park, despite Harvey allowing a career-high nine runs in a career-low 2⅔ innings on Thursday at Citi Field against the Nats. That outing prompted Harvey’s ERA to swell to 5.77 in nine starts this season.

“Obviously it’s frustrating being out there right now when you’re not doing well and not helping the team,” Harvey told ESPN.com on Monday afternoon. “As a teammate, your objective is to do everything you can to win games and help us succeed. And I wasn’t doing that. So, obviously, they gave me an option to be skipped or whatnot and really try to figure things out. For me, taking time off isn’t going to do anything. It’s finding it on the mound.

“I’m not a quitter. I’m not going to just quit and put the ball down. It’s a fight. It was good for me to do that.”

Said manager Terry Collins: “Nobody is more frustrated than him. He said, ‘I’m not backing away from this.’ A lot of guys would have taken that out. He had a shot to. He could have said, ‘I need to get away from this.’ But he didn’t. He just said, ‘I’ve got to get back out there and I’ve got to pitch. That’s the only way I’m going to get through this.’ I thought that was the most impressive part of it.”

Harvey took the unusual step between starts of throwing to teammate Matt Reynolds and …

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