Harang has been a strong contributor for Phillies so far

NEW YORK - The infielders, training staff and manager all converged on the Citi Field mound with Aaron Harang in the fourth inning.

Harang, who will celebrate his 37th birthday next month, turned awkwardly after a comebacker ricocheted off his glove. The veteran righthander, who had two starts scratched this spring because of back problems, continued to pitch and afterward said there was nothing to worry about.

The minor health scare was a blip on the radar for Harang, who has been a bright spot in the first week of the season for the Phillies. He limited the Mets to one run on four hits in six innings of a 2-0 loss yesterday afternoon.

Two starts into his Phillies career, Harang has allowed a total of one earned run on only six hits in 12 1/3 innings (0.73 ERA).

"I wasn't as sharp as the first one, but I was able to keep their hitters off balance, and the guys were making plays behind me, and that's huge," said Harang, who signed a 1-year, $5 million deal as a free agent in January. "You get their team to put the ball in play early on in the count, the guys are still going to be on their toes and make some big plays for you."

Entering play yesterday, Phillies starting pitchers had a 3.78 ERA, eighth best in the National League. That number shrinks to a 2.37 ERA if you subtract the only dud, David Buchanan's six runs in three innings last week against Boston.

Despite consistency from their starting pitchers, the Phillies have a losing record a week into the 2015 season.

"Our pitching has been keeping us in ballgames, and we just haven't been able to capitalize," Ryan Howard said. "Cody [Asche] and Freddy [Galvis] have been swinging the bat great; the rest of us just have to catch up . . . We've been in every game this year expect the first one against Boston. Our pitching staff has been great. Hopefully, they can keep it up and we can catch up."

Buchanan takes the mound opposite New York's Matt Harvey tonight in New York.

While the teamwide offensive production is an ongoing problem, the Phillies' defense in the outfield, particularly the arrangement of Ben Revere in left and Odubel Herrera in center, has worked well through the season's first week.

Two days after throwing a runner out at home, Revere continued to look comfortable in left, running down a ball in the left-center gap and going all-out on a diving catch toward the line to rob Curtis Granderson of extra bases in the fifth inning.

Revere showed the ball to the umpire after the latter, which clearly knocked the wind out of him.

"And my other part kind of got hurt, too," Revere said. "My manhood kind of got hurt a little bit. They both got hurt a little bit."

Herrera, who had played only 13 games in the outfield in the previous six seasons, and only two of them in centerfield, continued to track fly balls with ease in Citi Field's expansive outfield. Revere, meanwhile, hadn't started a game in left since 2012 before last week.

"I'm so used to playing center, left, right," Revere said. "I played a bunch of games in the minor leagues and a bunch of games with the Twins. It doesn't really bother me."

The Phillies have been shut out twice in their first seven games. In 2014, when they were shut out 15 times, the Phillies' second shut out didn't come until their 30th game of the season, on May 5 . . . Lefthander Cesar Jimenez cleared waivers and accepted an assignment to Triple A Lehigh Valley. Jimenez was designated for assignment over the weekend to clear a roster spot for righthander Sean O'Sullivan . . . The Mets hosted a Citi Field regular-season record 43,947 yesterday. The 7-year-old ballpark's attendance record of 45,186 came when it played host to the 2013 All-Star Game.

Blog: ph.ly/HighCheese