For many baseball fans, this is just Game No. 37 of 162 on the season: a random 12:10 pm Wednesday matchup in a random two-game series between two teams who don’t see each other very often.
For Matt Harvey, this is the first time in three years that he takes the mound at Citi Field, a place he pitched for six seasons. The last time, Harvey was a one-time ace struggling with injuries whom the Mets had moved to the bullpen. Eventually, the team issued him an ultimatum that he’d be demoted to the minor leagues. Harvey refused the assignment, and on May 4, 2018, the Mets DFA’d the right-hander before managing to scrape out a trade for him with Cincinnati.