Despite their flaws, this is what sets the Mets apart.
Having their three young aces — Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndergaard — coming at you is not a pleasant experience.
The Mets need to upgrade their offense for the sake of these pitchers and their long-suffering fans.
Harvey was at his best Monday night, pitching eight shutout innings, but that wasn’t good enough to get the win because the Cardinals scored a run to tie the game in the 9th against Jeurys Familia, the closer’s first blown save.
The Mets eked out a run in the 14th to win it, 2-1, at Citi Field, without hitting the ball out of the infield.
Syndergaard won Sunday, deGrom won Saturday. Harvey pitched eight shutout innings, giving him 16 straight without a run allowed, and the Mets won. That’s three wins in a row with their young guns, for the first time ever.
This is the present and the future of the Mets.
They could become Jugger-Mets — with just a little more offense.
“I think all five starters are doing their job right now,’’ Harvey said after the 4-hour, 14-minute game. “It’s all of us as a staff. It’s fun to watch, it’s fun to see other ballclubs come in here and see who they have to match up against.
“It’s nice having that. I know everybody likes talking about the future, but we are here to win now and all five of us are doing our job to do that.’’
That is a key comment. Win now.
Don’t blow this opportunity. Get more offense in here. David Wright, who has played in only eight games this season, and Travis d’Arnaud are missed.
Harvey has not allowed a run in four of his eight starts. He had the 23,338 fans chanting his name at Citi Field. It was his night, until he left after eight innings.
Outfielder Michael Cuddyer has been around the game for a long time and told The Post: “Regardless of their age, having three guys with that kind of stuff is a nice luxury to have. As far as the health of the organization, they could be 1-2-3 for years to come.
“To know every single night you have a chance to win the game is huge and knowing you don’t have to score six to seven to eight runs to make that happen on a typical night, that’s big as well.’’
“When I come to the ballpark,’’ Terry Collins told The Post, “and got Harvey on the mound today, I got Syndergaard [Sunday], deGrom coming up, I’m thinking to myself, ‘How are we going to score a few runs? If we can get two or three, we’ve got a legitimate chance to win the game.’ ’’
Yes, just score a few runs.
The Mets’ three young hurlers give hope every night they pitch.
“We’ve been talking for a long time about ‘It’s coming, it’s coming.’ Now it’s here,’’ Collins said.
Just wait until left-hander Steven Matz joins the party.
“This is about the big picture,’’ Collins added. “I hope our fan base understands what they are looking at because this is going to be special for a few years.’’
Harvey is 5-1 with a 1.98 ERA and 56 strikeouts over 54 ?/? innings; deGrom is 4-4 with a 3.21 ERA and 43 strikeouts over 47 ?/? innings while Syndergaard is 1-1 with a 3.18 ERA with 11 strikeouts in 11 innings.
“I think we learn from each other,’’ deGrom told The Post. “Just watching the other guy pitch and then we kind of come up with our own game plan. We’re all similar, but we have our differences.’’
Syndergaard is the youngest of the three at 22. DeGrom and Harvey are 26.
This was Harvey’s seventh career start in which he allowed no runs and struck out at least nine, tying Dwight Gooden and Vida Blue for the most such starts in a pitcher’s first 44 games.
The Mets are finally holding three young aces — upgrade the feeble offense. Quickly.