It will take many more games, weeks and months to determine what Matt Harvey is capable of this year. Before Thursday, he had not pitched in a regular-season game since July, when one of his ribs was removed to alleviate pressure on a nerve that was causing numbness in his fingers.
The condition Harvey was suffering from is called thoracic outlet syndrome. By name alone, it sounds ominous. Even though he was in the hands of one of the nation’s best doctors for the ailment, Harvey has said that his recovery from the operation involved more unknowns than his recuperation from Tommy John surgery, the elbow operation that he had in 2013 and that has a more established track record in the sport.