Matt Harvey (USA TODAY Sports Images)

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — “I felt the buzz right when I pulled up in the parking lot,” Mets catcher Travis d’Arnaud said. “It was the first spring training game I’ve been nervous for in a while.”

Coming off a strong second half, d’Arnaud is a lock to open the season as his team’s starting catcher. So why the nerves on Friday?

“Harvey Day,” he said.

The once-every-fifth-day celebration of pitching excellence became a full-blown phenomenon among Mets fans in 2013, when ace starter Matt Harvey teased a promising future for the long-struggling club every time he took the mound. But after Harvey spent that season’s first five months near the top of practically every pitching leaderboard, his eponymous holidays were abruptly canceled when a late August MRI revealed a torn ulnar collateral ligament that would require Tommy John surgery.

Harvey returned to game action for the first time since the procedure on Friday, starting a Grapefruit League game against the Detroit Tigers in front of a rare sellout crowd at Tradition Field, the Mets’ spring home.

“This was not a normal spring training game,” said manager Terry Collins. “We’re talking about one of the best in the game coming back, and there are a lot of people here to see it.”

He did not disappoint: Harvey threw two perfect innings, striking out three batters and inducing a couple of ground-outs and a pop fly in his team’s 5-4 win. His fastball touched 99 miles per hour on some scouts’ radar guns, and sat in the high 90s for his entire outing.

“It was just like where he left off,” said third baseman David Wright. “And that’s the biggest compliment you can give him. It reminded me of the last time I saw him on the mound: He went out there throwing strikes, throwing everything for strikes.”

(USA TODAY Sports Images)

Harvey even showed off his revitalized curveball, a pitch he says has improved through his rehab process. With a full count on Tigers catcher Bryan Holaday with two outs in the second, Harvey made his last pitch of the day a memorable one, hooking a curve into the zone for a called strike three.

“That was his idea,” d’Arnaud said. “That was his idea. He had great command with it today. I trusted him, and he threw a perfect pitch.”

“Having that as another weapon is pretty nice,” said Harvey.

Harvey’s competitive zeal caused some headaches for the Mets during his rehab process, when his outspoken desire to pitch in 2014 clashed with the club’s more conservative course. And both the pitcher and the team recognize how difficult it will be to confine Harvey to innings limits as they manage his return this season.

“I asked (Collins) if I could go out for a couple more innings, and that was laughed about,” Harvey said. “We both know that’s going to happen at some point, so giving him a little chuckle about wanting to go back out was my way of saying I understand the process and I know how things are going to go.”

“We’re all gonna chuckle about it today,” Collins said. “Because that (expletive)’s going to want to do that in June, and it won’t be as funny in June.”

Noah Syndergaard (USA TODAY Sports Images)

The Mets have made no secret about their intentions to contend this season, a goal that is seemingly echoed by every player in every interview despite the team’s streak of six straight losing seasons. But in reconciling that aim with their desire to keep Harvey healthy for the long term, the Mets have a luxury few teams can boast: More pitching — especially young, very promising pitching — than they know what to do with.

After Harvey, 25, left the game, 22-year-old fireballer Noah Syndergaard threw two innings of his own. Syndergaard, recently ranked the No. 9 prospect in all of baseball by Baseball Prospectus is the best heralded of a series of talented arms in the Mets’ minor league system. But though he already has a full year of Class AAA under his belt, Syndergaard is likely ticketed to start the year back in the minors.

With Harvey healthy, the Mets already have six established starters on their Major League roster. Reigning NL Rookie of the Year Jacob deGrom, 26, and hard-throwing righty Zack Wheeler, 24, round out perhaps as good a trio of young big-league starters as any in the circuit. Barring a trade, solid veterans Jon Niese and Bartolo Colon will fill out the rotation, pushing righty Dillon Gee to a bullpen that is also crowded with young arms like Jenrry Mejia and Jeurys Familia.

“We don’t have the experience other staffs have, but there’s no reason we can’t compete,” Collins said. “Because we’ve got good stuff, and stuff wins here.”

But no one on the Mets’ staff — not even Colon in his Cy Young season in 2005 — has ever demonstrated the type of dominance that Harvey did before his injury in 2013, and the team recognizes that his successful return is a crucial element of contention. Before Harvey’s outing on Friday, a group of his staff-mates celebrated Harvey Day by crowding behind him and watching as he threw his final warmup tosses.

“We’re all aware of who he is and what he brings to this team, and his importance on this club,” Collins said. “Each time out there, there’ll be a lot of guys watching.

“I’m very, very happy for him,” the manager added. “This was his day.”