Baker not out to fix Harvey for the Mets, but empathizes with situation

By Byron Kerr

Nationals

May 25, 2016, 8:38am

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The biggest story from this week's series on the New York side has been the struggles of right-hander Matt Harvey which continued Tuesday in a 7-4 loss to the Nats.

Harvey allowed three homers and five runs and eight hits in five innings, succumbing to his seventh loss and second against the Nats in five days.

After the game, the New York media jumped on Harvey because he did not speak to them.

Today during pregame, Nationals manager Dusty Baker was asked about the problems for Harvey right now:

"I'm not going to try to straighten their clubhouse out," Baker said. "It's his prerogative to do what he wants to do. If he doesn't want to talk, then he doesn't have to talk. It will just make it harder on himself."

Baker did say that it is important for each player to answer when things don't go well.

"New York will eat you up. They know their sports heroes in that town better than anybody," Baker said. "For as many people that live in New York, I don't know how I can walk down the street... and they're has to be more people that look like Dusty Baker than me. But these people in New York, they know.

"They know sports. They know it big-time. I tell my guys. 'I'm not going to tell you what to do, but you're going to have to own up to it and live with whatever you do. Try not to put pressure on your teammates to answer your questions.'"