Despite a strong debut, the southpaw’s early exit stunned fans. Discover how pitch counts, fatigue, and strategic matchups fueled Craig Counsell’s calculated decision to pull his new starter.
Starting pitcher David Peterson did his job in his Chicago Cubs debut.
Peterson was called upon to start a pivotal game against the Milwaukee Brewers on Saturday night. The Brewers had won the first four meetings against the Cubs this year, and the North Siders couldn't afford to fall 8 ½ games back of first place in the National League Central division standings.
The southpaw didn’t allow that to happen, as he made a strong impression in his first start with his new team. He went from being traded on Wednesday night to earning his first win in a Cubs jersey just three days later.
His Cubs career got off to a bit of a rough start after allowing a home run on the first pitch he threw in the game. But he really settled down after that, setting down 11 of the next 13 batters he faced.
It was an overall solid outing for Peterson. He threw 5 ⅔ innings of two-run ball with no walks and two strikeouts, and kept the North Siders in the game before he departed with two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning.
The decision to remove Peterson with nobody on base and two outs in that sixth inning came as a bit of a surprise. He was only at 69 pitches and got William Contreras out both times that he faced him earlier in the game (strikeout and flyout).
However, a few factors likely went into that decision.
The first being that Peterson is not used to pitching this deep into games. His 5 ⅔ innings pitched on Saturday was his longest outing of the season. He hadn’t pitched more than four innings in any appearance in June and spent most of the last month in the Mets’ bullpen.
The second is that the Cubs probably wanted to ease him in a bit after a long week. The veteran left-hander has thrown more than 65 pitches just once over his last four outings and is definitely not built up to handle a full starter’s workload.
Lastly, Contreras has smashed lefties in the first half. He is slashing .312/.400/.455 with seven extra-base hits and 10 RBIs against southpaws this season.
All three of those things combined are ultimately why manager Craig Counsell probably decided to play the matchups game and replace Peterson with right-hander Tyler Ferguson. Ferguson then got Contreras to strike out to end the inning.
Peterson did everything the Cubs needed him to do in Saturday’s start. They needed someone to keep them in the game and give them a chance to win.
He did just that.
The veteran will now face another division rival in his next start. Peterson is expected to start next weekend against a Cardinals team that he just faced earlier this month. He’s hoping for better results this time around after allowing six runs across 3 ⅔ innings as a bulk reliever back on June 10.
