WASHINGTON -- Twice this season, a Mets starter has completed eight innings in a game. The list is as follows: David Peterson and David Peterson.
Five times this season, a Mets starter has at least pitched into the eighth: Peterson, Peterson, Peterson, Peterson and Peterson. Twelve times, a Mets starter has pitched into the seventh -- eight for Peterson, four for everyone else.
Peterson’s latest deep start occurred Tuesday at Nationals Park, where the left-hander proved not only that he’s capable of giving the team length, but that he’s the only Mets starter who can do so on even a semi-regular basis. Peterson completed eight innings in an 8-1 win over the Nats, allowing the pitching staff to enjoy a hard reset at the outset of a stretch of 16 games in 16 days.
“Hell of a job,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said.
Before Tuesday, the Mets had not had a starting pitcher complete even six innings since Aug. 6 (when, naturally, Peterson was the one to do it). The last Mets starter to finish seven innings was (of course) Peterson back on July 10 -- nearly six weeks ago.
On this night, Peterson looked capable of providing length from the jump. He struck out a pair during a perfect first inning and didn’t permit a baserunner until the third, when he promptly erased a leadoff single on a double play. Through five innings, Peterson faced the minimum. He ran into (relatively) more trouble in the back half of the game, but by that point, the Mets were comfortably ahead thanks to homers from Mark Vientos, Juan Soto and Brett Baty, as well as a three-hit game from Jeff McNeil.
Pitching with a lead, Mendoza said, certainly helped Peterson. But so did the left-hander’s ability to throw strikes -- something that was a bugaboo for him earlier in his career, and that haunted him during a six-run blowup last time out against the Braves. In that game, Peterson’s strike rate was 60 percent. Tuesday, it was up to 68 percent, which is close to ideal for a starting pitcher.
“It felt pretty uncharacteristic to me,” Peterson said of his last start. “It was just kind of flushing it and getting onto the next one. I knew exactly what I didn’t do well and what I needed to work on, and so I kind of prioritized that and turned the page.”
All told, Peterson struck out 10 Washington hitters, allowing four hits. In two starts against the Nats this season, he has ceded one run over 17 innings.
It helped, of course, that the Nationals rank in the bottom third of the Majors in most meaningful offensive categories. But Peterson cannot control his opponent; he can only control his craft. To that end, second baseman Paul DeJong noted that Peterson attacked him with different pitch sequences in each of his three plate appearances. Interim manager Miguel Cairo offered a similar perspective from the dugout, concluding: “He’s got our number, I guess.”
“When you’re on your heels, you’re not sure what to look for,” DeJong added. “And he had us on our heels, thinking about what our approach should be and sneaking pitches by and using his pitch shapes to his advantage. So he pitched really well.”
For the Mets, Peterson’s lengthy start kicked off a stretch of 16 games in as many days -- their longest of the season without an off-day. While the Mets tentatively plan to insert a sixth starter toward the back end of that run, according to a person familiar with their plans, they’re going to rely on their incumbent starters for most of it. That means Kodai Senga will pitch on four days’ rest next week for the first time this season. It means the Mets will hope for continued success from rookie Nolan McLean and will ask for more from their other starters.
But much of the bulk work will still fall to Peterson, which is why Mendoza cut him (relatively) short Tuesday after eight innings and 96 pitches. Given that Peterson will take the mound three times during this 16-game stretch, with the latter two coming on regular rest, Mendoza wanted to keep him as fresh as possible.
While Peterson probably won’t finish eight innings in each of those games, he does intend to try.
“That’s kind of the mentality of the staff,” Peterson said. “I go out there and try to give the team a chance to win and try to be efficient. Being on the attack, getting ahead early in the count has helped that. The more efficient you can be, the deeper you can get into games.”