David Peterson delivered a quality start in his third straight outing, allowing just three runs over seven innings on Tuesday night against the Atlanta Braves. But in the results business of professional baseball, another solid start from the Mets’ left-hander is marred by the bitter taste of defeat.
There are positives to take from the performance – allowing just three runs on five hits and three walks with three strikeouts on just 93 pitches – but there are no moral victories after the Mets fell 5-4 in 10 innings, losing their fourth-straight game.
“It’s baseball,” Peterson said. “You could be perfect and then still end up losing the game.”
“He was really good today,” manager Carlos Mendoza said of his starter. “Got ground balls when needed, attacked, the pace, I thought him and [catcher Francisco Alvarez] were on the same page.
“And for him to get through seven against that lineup pitch efficient, with the way he was at, I thought he was really good. I thought he was solid.”
Peterson said the focus is “attacking guys from the first pitch, trying to get first pitch strikes.” He did just that on Tuesday night, racking up 17 of them to 28 batters. “Fill up the zone a lot and put the pressure on them,” the lefty continued.
Alvarez said the key was to just keep attacking, which Peterson did, getting the Braves to pound a dozen balls into the ground over the course of the game while managing just seven whiffs and 14 called strikes.
“I felt like we were able to get some early contact, defense did a great job of making the plays,” Peterson said. “I think when we’re in a spot where I can get the punch out, go for that. Other than that, just attacking early, staying on them and putting them in a position where they either gotta try and put the ball in play or at least swing the bat.”
With Peterson coming off a complete game his last time out, Mendoza didn’t hesitate to send out the left-hander for the bottom of the eighth on Tuesday night after efficiently recording the first 21 outs. Unfortunately, Peterson didn’t record another out after that.
“Especially with the way he was throwing the ball, you got a three-run lead there, he’s at 82 pitches with the nine-hole [hitter],” Mendoza said of his thought process. “He walked him there, you still like your chances with getting a ground ball, he was getting a lot of ground balls.”
Peterson said after the game that he felt good coming off the complete game last week and Mendoza added later: “Look, when you got the guy that wants the ball at 82 pitches and you got a three-run lead,” he said, before pausing to shrug his shoulders, “that’s an easy decision, there.”
Peterson said it was “good to be efficient, good to get quick outs, good to keep them off the board for the most part, but I didn’t put us in a good spot at the start of the eighth.”
And in baseball, sometimes things just don’t pan out as Reed Garrett entered and allowed a single to put the tying run on base before conceding a two-strike, two-out bases-clearing double to level the score.
“It just didn’t happen today, we were one pitch, one strike away from getting out of it,” Mendoza said of the home half of the eighth. “Just couldn’t get the job done.”
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