Harvey threw 25 pitches to Nimmo, who made little solid contact but did line a couple of singles to right field.

I havent faced Harvey before, so I didnt have too many preconceived notions, Nimmo said. But obviously you know the name and go in there expecting good stuff. It looked like good stuff to me.

Harvey seemed to agree. I got after it pretty good today, he said. I was obviously a little rusty at first, but then towards the end I was able to get the ball down and finish the pitches that I wanted to. Everything felt great.

Harvey made just 13 starts this season, with a 4-3 record and career-high 5.25 earned run average, before sustaining a shoulder injury. This is the third injury-shortened season of Harveys five-year career; he missed all of 2014 after undergoing Tommy John surgery and much of 2016 because of thoracic outlet syndrome, requiring more surgery.

But Collins said that Harvey, who was also suspended by the team after failing to show up to a game in May, had shown a strong commitment to his rehabilitation this year.

Hes got himself in tremendous shape, and hes done everything weve asked him to do, Collins said. Hes determined to be back, and I think he will be back.

Harvey, 28, left that June 14 game after four innings, having allowed four earned runs and three home runs. His fastball was clocked at 87 miles per hour, a number Harvey said he had not seen since high school.

The next day, a magnetic resonance imaging test revealed a stress injury to the scapula in his pitching shoulder. Harvey was treated with a platelet-rich plasma injection and shut down.

The long-term prospects for Harveys Mets career are still in doubt his status in the rotation has been supplanted by Noah Syndergaard and Jacob deGrom and although he is under team control for one more season, there is no guarantee the Mets will try to retain him when he becomes a free agent.

In the short term, Collins cautioned that Harvey faced plenty of work before he could return to the majors. Youre going to have increase the pitches, youre going to have to increase the effort, hes going to have to see hitters, and hes got to find his off-speed pitches, Collins said.

He added, Its going to be a process.

A version of this article appears in print on August 9, 2017, on Page B9 of the New York edition with the headline: Harvey Advances Toward a Return This Year.

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For Matt Harvey, Pitching to a Teammate Represents Progress - New York Times