David Peterson continued the early season trend for Mets starters on Sunday, giving the team productive work on the mound while only throwing a limited number of innings.
Peterson’s outing was going smoothly for the first four innings of Sunday’s matinee. Like Griffin Canning‘s performance the night before, the Mets lefty kept the Blue Jays at bay, with some walks sprinkled in, adding to his pitch count.
Peterson had thrown 78 pitches with two outs in the fifth inning. With Vladimir Guerreo Jr. up at the plate, Peterson bent over, appearing to be in pain. It turned out that Peterson wasn’t feeling hurt but ill.
“My vision just went blurry…my stomach turned over on me,” Peterson told the media after the game, “Felt like I got punched in the stomach and was going to throw up … feeling better (now).”
After manager Carlos Mendoza and the training staff checked on Peterson, the Mets former first-rounder continued to pitch, with the tying run at the plate. Peterson proceeded to walk the next two batters to load the bases. Instead of taking him out, Mendoza pushed his starter to face another batter.
Unfortunately for Peterson, he hit Andres Giménez with his first pitch, forcing in the first run for Toronto. That’s when Mendoza signaled to the bullpen for Max Kranick, who got Alejandro Kirk to pop out and limit the damage. Four additional shutout innings from the Mets bullpen gave the team their fourth win in a row and their first series sweep of 2025.
Peterson mixed his 91 pitches well on the afternoon. Of his 43 fastballs, 24 were sinkers, and 19 were four-seamers. Of his 26 breaking pitches, 15 were sliders, and 11 were curveballs.
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But the story during Peterson’s first two starts of the year seems to be his change-up. Throwing the pitch 22 times, he has now thrown it 24% of the time in the early season. That is up from 16% in 2024.
Of his other pitches, only the slider has seen a tangible difference in usage, going from 18% to 13%. That’s after his run value on breaking pitches last season was in the ninth percentile, according to Baseball Savant. This change in philosophy has increased his offspeed run value to the 93rd percentile, and his breaking pitch run value is now up to the 87th percentile. With better timing and execution on his slider, Peterson is starting the year right where he left off in 2024.
