Mets ace Matt Harvey has been open in his quest for greatness and his pursuit of perfection. He almost reached it Tuesday night, taking a perfect game into the seventh inning and completely smothering the White Sox in the Mets' 1-0, 10-inning win. He got a no-decision, but make no mistake, he was the star of the night.
Mike Baxter got a walk-off RBI single and closer Bobby Parnell (3-0) got the win. After Ike Davis worked a full-count walk, and Juan Lagares moved him over with a sacrifice bunt, Baxter — pinch-hitting for Parnell — sliced a ball to right field to finally end it, and keep the Mets from wasting Harvey's outing.
Harvey, who began his start with a bloody nose and pitched with gauze in his nostril to stop the bleeding, went 20 up and 20 down, perfect until Chicago right fielder Alex Rios beat out an infield hit with two out in the seventh inning. Rios hit a slow roller that shortstop Ruben Tejada had to go deep into the hole to field. Rios just beat his throw to first.
That one hit hardly diminished Harvey's dominance. He allowed just that one harmless hit in nine innings, not walking a batter and striking out a career-high 12 White Sox. He matched the Mets' longest perfect-game bid since Rick Reed's 6 ²/₃ innings in 1998 against Tampa Bay.
The 24-year-old right-hander has gotten no-decisions in his last three starts after winning his first four with a 0.93 ERA. Two off days and Saturday's rainout had left him with seven days' rest since his April 29 outing in Miami. Instead of rust, he gave the Mets brilliance last night, but they almost squandered it.
"He knows what comes with it,'' Terry Collins said before the game. "He's geared up to be great so he knows if you're going to be great you've got to deal with some things. That's where I think I'm the most impressed with him in how he deals with everything that's gone on.''
He's become so big, when team PR director Jay Horwitz jokingly tweeted Harvey had been given permission to miss tonight's game to attend the Rangers' playoff game in the Garden, it caused an uproar. Harvey even got angry tweets calling him a bad teammate, accusing him of letting success go to his head.
Clearly, the tweet was a joke, but Harvey wasn't, regularly hitting 97 mph and 98 mph with his fastball, and opening the sixth inning by buckling Chicago catcher Tyler Flower's knees with an 82 mph curve that would have made Doc Gooden proud.
White Sox starter Hector Santiago took his sweet time coming to the plate with two out in that inning, and one could hardly blame him. Harvey fanned him to end the inning.
Santiago was nowhere near as dominant, needing 48 pitches to get through the first two innings. But after Lucas Duda stranded two runners in the first and Ruben Tejada stranded two more in the second, the Mets had either their first or second batter on in each of the first five innings. But they couldn't scratch across a run.
Santiago left after seven innings, having allowed just four hits, two walks and striking out eight. But the Mets couldn't score in the eighth against Matt Lindstrom or the ninth against Nate Jones, with Harvey giving way to Parnell for a scoreless 10th inning.
brian.lewis@nypost.com
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