Mets’ David Peterson hopes to build off of success from best start of season
With the Mets needing someone to step up and put an end to their four-game losing streak, left-hander David Peterson put together one of his most encouraging starts of the season in Sunday’s walk-off win over the Angles.
“That’s one of the best I’ve felt this year,” Peterson told reporters postgame. “It felt good to get deep into the game again and get over 100 pitches, especially after the build up. That’s definitely one of the ones I’ve felt better.”
Peterson fell into immediate trouble, issuing a walk to the leadoff batter, but quickly cruised after that. He had his putaway pitch working all afternoon, as he struck out four hitters the first time through the order.
The lefty held Los Angeles without a hit until Luis Rengifo reached on an infield single in the third. He advanced into scoring position on a throwing error, but Peterson was able to strike out Shohei Ohtani to end the threat.
He held Ohtani hitless for the first time this series, including a pair of strikeouts.
Peterson continued cruising and worked into the seventh inning for the first time this season, but that’s when he began to run out of steam. The Angles pieced together two singles and a walk to load the bases with just one out.
The 27-year-old impressively bared down though, and was able to get out of the inning allowing just one run on a fielder's choice. Overall, he allowed just that run on three hits while walking three and striking out eight over seven strong innings.
Mets manager Buck Showalter said Peterson’s gem was the key to the win.
“He’s quietly been real competitive for us,” the skipper said. “We needed a starter to get deep into the game and Petey dialed that up for us. A lot better command, a lot of groundballs, and kept Ohtani from hurting us, that’s quite a feat.
“He was really good, it was good to see.”
Peterson’s had his ups and downs this season, but as Showalter indicated, he’s pitched relatively well since returning to the rotation. He now has a 3.00 ERA, 1.53 WHIP, and 31 strikeouts in eleven outings since the All-Star break.
There’s no denying though this one was his best of the season, and Peterson is hoping to be able to build off this success moving forward.
“It was good to be able to just attack the zone,” he said. “It’s success to build off of. Now we see what we need to improve and where we could’ve been better and just keep moving forward. Just have to move onto the next one and keep going.”
