Welcome to the Big Leagues, Matt Harvey!

Matt Harvey made his major league debut last night for the New York Mets. The 7th overall pick of the 2010 draft had gone 20-10 with a 3.48 ERA and a 9.8 K/9 rate in about 246 minor league innings. Yesterday, Harvey pitched 5 1/3 innings of shutout ball, allowing just 3 hits and 3 walks, while striking out 11, setting a new club record for a debut. He also collected 2 hits in 2 trips to the plate, the first of which was a double. Here are some quick notes about his performance:


Harvey is the first pitcher since 2010 and just the 23rd since 1918 to strike out at least 10 batters in his ML debut; overall his 11 Ks tie him for 7th on the all-time list:

Rk	Player	Date	Tm	Opp	Rslt	App,Dec	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	GSc
1	J.R. Richard	1971-09-05 (2)	HOU	SFG	W 5-3	CG 9 ,W	9.0	7	3	2	3	15	0	75
2	Karl Spooner	1954-09-22	BRO	NYG	W 3-0	SHO9 ,W	9.0	3	0	0	3	15	0	93
3	Stephen Strasburg	2010-06-08	WSN	PIT	W 5-2	GS-7 ,W	7.0	4	2	2	0	14	1	75
4	Cliff Melton	1937-04-25	NYG	BSN	L 1-3		9.0	6	3	2	2	13	0	76
5	Steve Woodard	1997-07-28 (1)	MIL	TOR	W 1-0	GS-8 ,W	8.0	1	0	0	1	12	0	91
6	Juan Marichal	1960-07-19	SFG	PHI	W 2-0	SHO9 ,W	9.0	1	0	0	1	12	0	96
7	Tim Hudson	1999-06-08	OAK	SDP	L 3-5	GS-5	5.0	7	3	3	4	11	1	48
8	Don Aase	1977-07-26	BOS	MIL	W 4-3	CG 9 ,W	9.0	9	3	2	2	11	0	68
9	Bob Shirley	1977-04-10	SDP	CIN	W 12-4	GS-9 ,W	8.2	4	4	0	4	11	0	75
10	Luis Tiant	1964-07-19 (2)	CLE	NYY	W 3-0	SHO9 ,W	9.0	4	0	0	4	11	0	86
11	Danny McDevitt	1957-06-17	BRO	CIN	W 7-2	CG 9 ,W	9.0	7	2	2	5	11	0	71
12	Dick Hall	1955-07-24 (1)	PIT	CHC	W 12-5		9.0	9	5	5	1	11	1	59
13	Thomas Diamond	2010-08-03	CHC	MIL	L 3-4	GS-6 ,L	6.0	7	3	3	3	10	0	53
14	Johnny Cueto	2008-04-03	CIN	ARI	W 3-2	GS-7 ,W	7.0	1	1	1	0	10	1	81
15	Daisuke Matsuzaka	2007-04-05	BOS	KCR	W 4-1	GS-7 ,W	7.0	6	1	1	1	10	1	70
16	Aaron Harang	2002-05-25	OAK	TBD	W 6-0	GS-7 ,W	7.0	3	0	0	3	10	0	78
17	Mark Prior	2002-05-22	CHC	PIT	W 7-4	GS-6 ,W	6.0	4	2	2	2	10	1	64
18	Kazuhisa Ishii	2002-04-06	LAD	COL	W 9-2	GS-6 ,W	5.2	2	0	0	3	10	0	72
19	Tim Wakefield	1992-07-31	PIT	STL	W 3-2	CG 9 ,W	9.0	6	2	0	5	10	0	76
20	Pedro Astacio	1992-07-03 (2)	LAD	PHI	W 2-0	SHO9 ,W	9.0	3	0	0	4	10	0	87
21	Rudy May	1965-04-18	CAL	DET	L 1-4	GS-9	9.0	1	1	0	5	10	0	88
22	Dave Morehead	1963-04-13	BOS	WSA	W 3-0	SHO9 ,W	9.0	5	0	0	4	10	0	83

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 7/27/2012.

Harvey is also the first pitcher since 2001 with at least two hits and one double in his debut, and just the 12th since 1918:

Rk	Player	Date	Tm	Opp	Rslt	PA	AB	R	H	2B
1	Matt Harvey	2012-07-26	NYM	ARI	W 3-1	2	2	0	2	1
2	Kyle Lohse	2001-07-12	MIN	MIL	W 13-5	4	4	0	2	1
3	Shawn Boskie	1990-05-20	CHC	HOU	W 5-1	4	4	0	2	1
4	David West	1988-09-24	NYM	STL	W 14-1	2	2	1	2	1
5	Hal Haydel	1970-09-07 (2)	MIN	MIL	W 8-3	3	3	2	2	1
6	Lou Kretlow	1946-09-26	DET	SLB	W 6-3	4	4	1	2	1
7	Tom Baker	1935-08-15	BRO	CHC	L 3-11	3	3	2	3	1
8	Fred Stiely	1929-10-06 (1)	SLB	CLE	W 4-2	3	3	1	2	1
9	Al Grabowski	1929-09-11 (1)	STL	BSN	W 11-4	4	4	1	2	1
10	Epp Sell	1922-09-01 (2)	STL	PIT	W 11-6	3	3	1	2	1
11	Tony Kaufmann	1921-09-23	CHC	BSN	W 13-5	4	4	0	2	1
12	Lefty Weinert	1919-09-24 (2)	PHI	BRO	L 7-14	2	2	1	2	1

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 7/27/2012.