The New York Mets were forced to start David Peterson against the Nationals last night, and the results weren't pretty.
The New York Mets have been talking about moving starter David Peterson to the bullpen, but given the state of the Mets rotation they had little choice but to start Peterson against the Washington Nationals. The result was a desultory 14-2 loss that sent Peterson’s ERA soaring to 6.53.
Peterson gave up two runs in the first inning on an RBI single by CJ Abrams and a groundout by Jacob Young that drove in a run, but the Mets cut the margin in half on Juan Soto’s third home run of the year. A seven-run fourth inning by the Nationals chased Peterson and put the game well out of reach, and most of what followed was just playing out the string.
The Mets liked the matchup of the lefty facing a Nationals lineup full of left-handed hitters, but the matchups didn’t matter much in this one.
"It’s extremely frustrating,” Peterson said in a piece written by Anthony DiComo of MLB.com, “knowing what I’m capable of and not being able to put it out there.”
The numbers tell the story here. Peterson’s velocity is down to a career low 91.8 mph, according to DiComo, and as a result opponents are hitting .417 off Peterson’s bread-and-butter pitch, which is his sinker.
DiComo went back even further to trace Peterson’s deterioration, citing a 2-6 record over his last 14 starts with an 9.31 ERA. Those are the numbers of a pitcher who doesn’t even deserve to be in the big leagues, much less part of a rotation for a team that was expected to contend this year.
Manager Carlos Mendoza pinpointed the problem, but in many ways he was just stating the obvious.
"You see flashes of it,” Mendoza said. “The stuff, he’s got more than enough to compete in the strike zone. It’s just when he loses the feel for it. … That’s the frustrating part. He’s got the stuff, obviously. But he’s got to be able to do it consistently.”
Peterson wound up giving up seven earned runs in just 3-2/3 innings, and Sean Manaea poured gas on the fire in relief, giving up six more in just 2-2/3. Both were expected to be staples in the back of the Mets rotation, and their failures go a long way toward explaining the Mets current record of 10-20. They’ve got a lot of company when it comes to playing bad baseball, though, and Mendoza is just sticking to his standard managerial mantra.
“We have to be better,” Mendoza said. “There’s no excuses, obviously. It’s been a long period of time here where we’re not playing well. So we’ve got to fix it.”