VIERA, Fla. — The pitches darted toward home faster than he expected. Three fast ones, and it was over.

For the most part, Matt Harvey’s second-inning strikeout at the plate was an afterthought in the Mets’ 8-5 loss to the Washington Nationals on Wednesday afternoon. The talk regarding Harvey during spring training has naturally been about his pitching, not his performance holding a bat.

“It looked a little quick,” Harvey said of his at-bat, drawing some laughs from the assembled reporters. On the mound, he pitched four innings and made one pitch he wished he had not. It resulted in a three-run homer by Bryce Harper in the first inning.

Still, for the Mets, a team that will try to scrape runs this season from every last crevice of its roster, Harvey’s moment at the plate was a noteworthy one. It was the first plate appearance this spring by a member of the pitching staff, a group that Mets coaches expect to help the offense.