Taking the mound against Yankees ace Max Fried in Sunday night’s Subway Series finale, David Peterson gave the Mets the exact type of effort they were looking for.
The southpaw was hurt by his defense early, as the slow-footed Paul Goldschmidt reached on a Mark Vientos error leading off the bottom of the first, and then Cody Bellinger drove in the first two runs of the game after an Aaron Judge double.
Peterson did well to settle in after that — working around a leadoff single in the second and then a two out walk in the bottom of the third before putting together his first 1-2-3 frame of the night.
The Yanks threatened again in the fifth, as three walks (one intentional to Judge) loaded the bases for Anthony Volpe, but the southpaw was able to bare down and got him to groundout to short to end the inning.
Peterson then closed his night with a perfect bottom of the sixth — giving him another quality start with a final line of two runs (one earned) on three hits while walking four and striking out four.
“For him to go six there, going toe-to-toe with Max, that was important,” Carlos Mendoza said. “He kept us in the game, he kept getting groundballs — we weren’t able to make the play in the first, but he mixed his pitches well against a good lineup and was good overall.”
The Mets, unfortunately, let this one slip away with a six-run eight inning meltdown.
Still, seeing Peterson put together another strong effort against this high-powered offense is an encouraging sign. The former first-round pick has now allowed less than two earned runs in four consecutive outings, helping him bring his ERA down to 2.86 on the season.
“It was a good battle,” Peterson said. “It’s always fun going into these pitcher battles. Our offense grinded as much as they could and they put up a really good fight — but overall I felt good, I was on the same page as Alvy and we have a really good gameplan.”
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