Day after emotional no-no, Angels welcome back Harvey

One night after a pair of Los Angeles Angels combined to throw a no-hitter as the club honored late pitcher Tyler Skaggs, the team will refocus for the second game of a three-game set with the Seattle Mariners on Saturday.

Matt Harvey will return to the mound to make his first appearance after missing seven weeks because of an upper-back strain. He will face a Mariners team that could muster only one walk Friday night against Tyler Cole (two innings) and Felix Pena (seven innings) as the Angels rolled to a 13-0 win.

And presumably, Harvey's back is fine now.

That wasn't the case earlier this season, but he continued to pitch rather than tell manager Brad Ausmus or the training staff about the pain. It all came to a head on May 23, when Harvey was tagged for eight runs in just 2 2/3 innings of a loss to the Minnesota Twins.

After that game, it was obvious something wasn't right.

"It was me being stubborn, trying to fight through things," Harvey told the Los Angeles Times. "Clearly, I couldn't work through it. It was affecting my performance."

Harvey signed a one-year contract worth $11 million but won just two games in 10 starts, signaling to many in the organization that he was trying to fight through something.

"Just that it was having an impact on him, and that he was kind of keeping it to himself," Ausmus said. "He had to get through this thing to get better."

Both of Harvey's wins this season came against the Kansas City Royals. He has never faced Seattle in his career, but he has faced a handful of current Mariners players, including Dee Gordon, who is 8-for-16 against Harvey.

Mariners first baseman Daniel Vogelbach has never faced Harvey, but he's hoping his experience as the club's only All-Star earlier this week will help him going forward.

"You learn a ton of stuff," Vogelbach told the Seattle Times of his All-Star Game experience. "Just about how they (other All-Stars) go about their business every day and they don't change for the ups or the downs. Keep your same routine and trust your ability and trust your work. Don't chase for the day by day, just know that by the end of the year, it will be OK.

"Just being in the clubhouse and talking with all the guys, that's the best part."

Vogelbach leads the Mariners with 21 homers, 15 of which were hit off fastballs. Harvey relies primarily on his four-seam fastball, and gave up a season-high four home runs in that May 23 start.

Angels center fielder Mike Trout went 0-for-2 in the All-Star game, his first All-Star game without at least one hit. But he made up for it in his first game back Friday with a homer, two doubles, a walk, a hit-by-pitch and six RBIs -- all six within the first five innings of the game.

In 14 games against the Mariners this season, Trout is hitting .404 (19-for-47) with five homers and 16 RBIs.

With Friday starter Mike Leach lasting only two-thirds of an inning and Seattle using seven pitchers in the game, the Mariners had not announced a starting pitcher for Saturday's game as of late Friday night.

--Field Level Media