Facing a lineup that features the likes of Juan Soto, Manny Machado and Xander Bogaerts on Saturday night against the San Diego Padres, David Peterson kept the Mets in the game in his 5.1 innings of work.
Peterson’s one bad inning came in the second when he allowed three runs, two of which came off the bat of rookie Matthew Batten who hit a two-run homer that proved to be the difference.
“I feel like I was able to go after them with every weapon that I had and I felt good,” Peterson said after the game. “(Francisco Alvarez) and I were on a good wavelength together and the game plan was good so it kind of just came down to a couple of pitches from me and that one’s on me.”
Of course, the loss is not entirely on Peterson as the Mets’ offense could only muster three hits off Blake Snell and the Padres’ bullpen, but even after taking the loss, it was good to see Peterson pitch well for a third consecutive start since getting recalled from Triple-A.
After a disastrous start to his season, Peterson has pitched 15.1 innings since June 27 and has allowed four earned runs during that stretch as the team is 2-1 in those starts. Prior to that, the lefty had an 8.08 ERA and the Mets were 1-7 in his starts this season.
“Obviously I was sent down to work on some stuff and clean some stuff up and felt good when I got the call to come back and so the goal for me is to execute my pitches and compete for the guys in this room,” Peterson said .
With New York’s rotation starting to shape into form as they look to make a run at the playoffs during the second half of the season, Peterson is doing everything he can to make sure he stays in those plans.
Whether he’s done enough in his past three starts to warrant a spot in the starting rotation with Jose Quintana nearing his return remains to be seen, but striking out Soto, Machado and Bogaerts in a row in the fifth inning on Saturday is no small feat and certainly a good sign that Peterson is becoming the pitcher he was for most of last season.
As for the rest of the Mets, despite their season-long, six-game win streak being broken they can still win the series on Sunday in the rubber-game and head into the All-Star break feeling good about themselves.
They have just the man for the job, too, as Max Scherzer will get the ball.
“We’ve been playing good baseball and I think we like where we’re at and just to be feeling good about ourselves going into the break, that would be huge,” Mark Canha she said.