Crucial Assignment

Matt Harvey takes the mound again for the Mets tonight in Washington with so much at stake. Trailing the Nats by 1/2 game in the NL East, Terry Collins' crew can take over first place with a victory in the rematch with Stephen Strasburg, who bested Harvey five nights ago. But there's a lot more to it.
Not long ago the hero to the Flushing Faithful, Harvey has endured a mystifying slump this season. While apparently healthy, he's been ineffective. So off his game that Saturday, two days after being shelled by Washington, he threw a simulated game for the Mets brass. And there's still no explanation as to what's gone wrong. Just a pile of questions:
Will Harvey ever pitch like "The Dark Knight" again? Will he ever approach the dominance he showed as recently as the first eight innings of game five of last year's World Series? Is his problem psychological rather than physical?
We'll know a lot more 24 hours from now.

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