In his final outing of the 2020 season last night, rookie left-hander David Peterson made sure to make it his longest, and perhaps most encouraging start to date, in the Mets’ 3-2 victory over the Washington Nationals.

The former first-round draft pick completed seven innings for the first time as a big-leaguer, and he did it in style, holding a righty-heavy Nats lineup to just one run on four hits and a walk en route to his club-leading sixth win.

Peterson wraps up an impressive freshman campaign with a 3.44 ERA, 1.21 WHIP, .202 opponent average, and 40 strikeouts to 24 walks in nine starts and 49.2 innings (all but four as a starter). His 1.4 bWAR ranks fifth on the team, and second on the pitching staff behind none other than Jacob deGrom.

“He did everything we asked,” club skipper Luis Rojas told reporters through Zoom after yesterday’s win. “It shows who this kid can be for us.”

Peterson’s four strikeouts pale in comparison to the even ten he’d amassed in his prior matchup with the Atlanta Braves, though the one base on balls marks an improvement of its own over the four he’d handed out last weekend. All told, last night marked the first time since August 2nd (his second big-league start, also against the Braves) that Peterson managed to limit the free passes to just one.

Even more encouraging, however, was the contrast in traffic between the two starts: while the University of Oregon product yielded three extra-base hits in his penultimate showing against Atlanta, a Juan Soto double made for the only such damage in last night’s contest. Not once did Peterson pitch with more than one baserunner aboard at a time.

Peterson set the tone early on with a ten-pitch, three-up, three-down bottom of the first inning, relying primarily on a fastball that ranged from 91-93 mph and bruised opposing righties on the inner third. Only after pounding ahead 0-2 on his third batter, Kurt Suzuki, did David even turn to his offspeed pitches, missing with a pair of sliders before eventually beating the designated hitter with a changeup down-and-away to force a weak 1-3 groundout.

Even as he hit Josh Harrison with a stray 1-2 slider and got bailed out by a laser throw to third from Dominic Smith one base-hit later, Peterson maintained a good tempo, not falling into a single hitters’ count until an at-bat after the fact. Here, against the left fielder Michael Taylor, the lefty would fall behind 3-1, but even then remained poised, notching a swing-and-miss at a changeup off the outside corner and then fooling him once more with a slider in the dirt.

Peterson hit two similar roadblocks in the bottom of the third, once against rookie second baseman Luis Garcia, when he fell behind 2-1 on a pair of loose sliders, and again versus Trea Turner, this time in a straight 2-0 hole. Nonetheless, both at-bats would end in strikeouts, the former coming on a 3-2 fastball perfectly dotted at the low-inside corner and the latter on a crafty 2-2 slider that tied the veteran up inside and capped off another one-two-three inning.

The Nationals worked 22 pitches and their lone run from Peterson in the fourth thanks to a nine-pitch leadoff walk from Soto and an RBI single off the bat of Harrison two batters later, but even then didn’t exactly appear to get the better of the rookie.

Soto was erased on a force play at second that, with a better feed from Todd Frazier, could have very well been a double play of a slow-footed Suzuki. He then advanced when Robinson Cano fielded a 78 mph grounder off the bat of catcher Yan Gomes and, instead of attempting an off-balance flip to Amed Rosario at the bag, fired across his body to record the longer out at first and let Suzuki into scoring position.

Of course, such will be the price contact pitchers pay when the only line of defense from inside fastballs is that of the Mets infield, but it’s no less impressive knowing Peterson not only limited the damage that inning, but also proceeded to post another ten-piece the following frame. Immediately after a Robinson Chirinos two-run homer gifted him his first lead of the evening, Peterson came back out with a soft flyout to right of Taylor, a slow groundout to third off the bat of Garcia, and a three-pitch popout to short from Victor Robles.

The Mets responded in kind with another run of support for Peterson in the sixth, again thanks to the efforts of his batterymate Chirinos, and when the Nationals’ order turned for a third time and began to knock for a second, Peterson buckled down and kept them off the board once again.

Soto’s one-out double again positioned Washington for a rally, and after falling behind Suzuki 3-0 and settling for a towering flyout to the track in center field on the very next pitch, the southpaw had a pivotal at-bat to win against Yan Gomes. In a notable display of maturity, Peterson worked ahead 1-2 on a pair of backdoor sliders before jamming Gomes on a fastball at the hands to induce a slow grounder to second and end the inning.

After the game, Chirinos sang the praises of the lefty, particular his improved ability to navigate at-bats with more consistent placement and movement of his fastball:

“The first outing I [caught] him [against the Phillies], it was inconsistent: it was one fastball good, three off… When you trust your stuff, you can repeat… that’s what Dave’s been able to do… he’s been able to locate in, away, even up… it’s just fun to be behind the plate and see what he’s been doing the last three outings.”

Rojas made a gamble sending Peterson out to the mound for the seventh, considering both his high-90s pitch count and the hard contact that had come to threaten his last inning of work.

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Josh Harrison‘s leadoff single on a missed changeup two pitches in added to the pressure, and a 1-0 fastball that sailed to the backstop and advanced Harrison ultimately forced a meeting at the mound with pitching coach Jeremy Hefner.

David once again rose to the occasion, coming back from 2-0 to strike out first baseman Jake Noll on another slider in the dirt, beating Taylor inside with a 2-2 fastball for another weak roller to Canó, and inducing a two-pitch groundout of Garcia to first to wrap up a scoreless 14-pitch inning.

“I want to go out there every five days and give the team a quality start, go deep into ballgames, and have the team in a position to win,” Peterson said postgame. “I wanted to prove to myself and everyone else I belonged up here.”

Both his manager and pitching coach have told him to “keep ready in case there’s a shot and something happens,” evidently in reference to a possible game-one start should the Mets win each of their next three games and squeak into the postseason. Between the San Francisco Giants (28-28), Philadelphia Phillies (28-29), and Milwaukee Brewers (27-29), it would take quite the collection of bad baseball across the next three to four games for the Mets, who at 26-31 have already clinched a losing record, to even re-enter the conversation.

And at two-and-a-half games out with three to play, it certainly seems far-fetched to think Peterson will get another start. Even so, with the note he ends on in 2020, the rookie has a lot to look forward to.

“Hopefully we can finish strong and see what happens, but it’s been a good experience for me… I love to compete; it’s been fun.”