Credit: Kyle Ross-USA TODAY Sports
The New York Mets (21-20) sent David Peterson to the mound as they opened a three-game series with the Colorado Rockies (19-29) at Citi Field.
The southpaw entered the game with a 4.97 ERA, 4.12 FIP, and 1.263 WHIP from his prior eight starts of the season. He dominated in the first four innings of his last start before imploding in the fifth to allow a total of five hits, one walk, and three runs in 4 2/3 innings as the Mets fell 5-4 to the Atlanta Braves.
Peterson started this game off well for the Mets in the first. He struck out Raimel Tapia and worked around an error to get out of the inning unscathed.
The second inning did not go as smoothly for Peterson. On his second pitch of the inning he gave up a home run to Ryan McMahon on an 83 MPH slider. While he rebounded by inducing a couple of groundouts, he then gave up his second solo homer of the inning on a 82.2 MPH slider to Elias Diaz. Peterson closed the book on the inning a batter later as he struck out his counterpart Austin Gomber on three pitches.
To start off the third, Peterson struck out Tapia again in his second time around the order. He followed that up with a groundout before allowing a single. However, no damage was done in the third as he got C.J. Cron to groundout to end the inning.
In the fourth inning, Peterson gave up a leadoff walk to McMahon who came around to score on a one-out triple by Garrett Hampson. After the triple, Peterson gave up another walk and received a visit to the mound. He settled down from there, getting a free out from Gomber’s sacrifice bunt and retiring Tapia on a ground ball out to first base.
Peterson allowed a leadoff single to Trevor Story in the bottom of the fifth. After a lineout and flyout, Peterson picked off Story to end the inning.
With his pitch count at 80 and the Mets in need of length out of their starter, Peterson came back out for one more inning. He started things off by getting McMahon to ground out. While he allowed his third walk of the game right after, he was able to get Hampson to ground into a double play to close out the inning.
Over the course of the six innings, Peterson allowed three runs on five hits, three walks, and two home runs, while striking out three. He was also charged with his fourth loss of the season.
Although the 25-year-old has struggled overall in his sophomore campaign, he had provided the Mets with three quality starts coming into the game and gave them another one in this losing effort against the Rockies.
