With the recent rash of injuries to the Mets' rotation, David Peterson has become the one arm the team should be able to depend on to have quality outings, but that hasn't been the case of late.
After he allowed five runs in his last start against the Phillies, Peterson took the mound against the Pirates on Friday night and had a similar ineffective performance.
His stuff was flat and the Pirates hitters were all over Peterson's pitches as he gave up a four-run inning en route to the Mets' eventual 9-1 loss to start the weekend series.
Heading into the Phillies game, Peterson was sporting a 2.60 ERA. Even after his dud against the Phillies, Peterson still had a sub-3.00 ERA, but his back-to-back poor outings are a bit concerning for a Mets team that needs him to guide this rotation until reinforcements arrive.
So, what exactly happened to Peterson on Friday? Manager Carlos Mendoza had a few thoughts.
"The fastball, he’s having a hard time locating on the glove side," he said after the game. "The changeup is just floating in the strike zone, he’s having a hard time seeing that fade and the same thing with the slider. The sharpness, getting backdoor to the right-handed hitters. Just one of those stretches, back-to-back outings, we’ll get to go back, watch film and make some adjustments."
In that four-run inning, the Pirates had eight batted balls and seven were hit at 101 mph or harder.
Mendoza was asked if he had the same assessment after the Phillies start, and the second-year skipper said he did. Philadelphia produced a ton of hard contact on Peterson's pitches and everything was up in the zone, just like on Friday.
"When he’s good, he’s able to get the changeup [down]," Mendoza explained. "Weak groundball, weak contact [is what we saw] the past couple of outings. In general, felt like he was fighting to find the sharpness on his pitches."
The Mets left-hander agreed with his manager's take on his performance on Friday.
"Didn’t feel like I had my best command, didn’t execute some pitches and they took advantage," Peterson said.
Took advantage is exactly what the Pirates did, as they scored five runs on seven hits and three walks across 4.2 innings against the left-hander. It's the second start this season in which Peterson has allowed at least five runs. He didn't have any such outing a year ago.
Mendoza said he's sure Peterson is healthy when he was asked, but pointed out that he believes there's a mechanical issue with his pitcher. Peterson and Mets pitching coach Jeremy Hefner have been working on his mechanics in between starts in the bullpen, but it didn't translate on the field Friday.
Peterson said his sessions with Hefner are nothing new and that it's just things he and the staff check back on constantly throughout the season, but acknowledged his mechanics were off.
"I didn’t necessarily stay on line and got too rotational in the second inning," he said. "Just trying to square that away and we’ll work on it again."
The Mets entered the weekend series with a half-game lead in the NL East over the Phillies, and going up against a below-.500 club in the Pirates was supposed to help New York collect wins. If the Mets are to weather this current storm of injuries to their pitchers, Peterson needs to be better and the left-hander knows it. But he's ready to work on his mechanics before his next time on the mound.
"I look at it one start at a time. It’s about getting back to good mechanics and feeling like I’m in the right spot," Peterson said. "I take what I need to do better, take what I did well from tonight and move on and prepare for the next one."
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