David Peterson’s late-season doldrums are only deepening.
The Mets still have work to finish before they get too serious about a postseason rotation, but the lefty Peterson isn’t showing much these days to demonstrate he is worthy of such consideration.
Wednesday night he appeared ready to overcome a sloppy beginning, but then the fifth inning arrived and all was lost.
The culmination was Manny Machado’s grand slam that sunk Peterson and the Mets in their 7-4 loss to the Padres at Citi Field.
The Mets remained 1 ½ games ahead of the Diamondbacks for the NL’s third and final wild card. The Reds and Giants are both two games behind the Mets.
Peterson, a workhorse for much of this season, represented the Mets in the All-Star game.
But his work since Aug. 6 (encompassing eight starts) has been underwhelming. Over that stretch he’s pitched to a 7.58 ERA. In six of those starts he has failed to complete six innings.
“It’s tough when you know what you’re capable of,” Peterson said. “You are going to go through times where it’s not going exactly how you want it to, whether it’s baseball or something that you are not necessarily executing, but you can’t hold on to it.”
Peterson’s lack of success lately has started with opponents hitting the ball in the air.
“When he’s at his best he’s getting a lot of ground balls, he’s inducing weak contact,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “He’s using all of his pitches when he’s ahead, getting swings and misses with his secondary pitches and we haven’t seen that here for quite a bit, so we have got to get him right.”
And that means sending Peterson back to the mound next week.
“We have only got about 10 more [games] to go in the regular season,” Mendoza said. “We need him. He’s been a big part of this team, but it has been a struggle for him.”
The series rubber game is Thursday, when the Mets will turn the rotation over to their youth movement: Jonah Tong is the first of three straight rookies scheduled to start for the team (with Brandon Sproat and Nolan McLean behind him).
Peterson allowed a single to Fernando Tatis Jr. leading off the game and walked Luis Arraez. Gavin Sheets’ sacrifice fly put the Mets in a 1-0 hole.
Pete Alonso’s two-out homer in the first got the Mets their first run.
It was the third straight game with a homer for Alonso, whose blast was his 36th this season and gave him 119 RBIs.
Jake Cronenworth’s RBI single in the second gave the Padres a 2-1 lead.
Jackson Merrill singled leading off and advanced to second on Jose Iglesias’ ground out before Cronenworth delivered.
Starling Marte’s solo blast in the fourth tied it 2-2. The homer was Marte’s ninth this season and moved him to 6-for-11 lifetime against Nick Pivetta. Marte hadn’t homered at Citi Field since May 30.
Peterson loaded the bases with one out in the fifth before Machado cleared the left-field fence for his 14th career grand slam — the most among active players. Machado launched a full-count curveball, only the second homer allowed by Peterson in his last seven starts.
“I shook to that pitch and felt I felt like I threw a good competitive pitch, down and away,” Peterson said. “He’s a really good hitter and he was able to give them a gap there in the game.”
The rally started with Cronenworth plunked leading off the fifth and a walk to Tatis. The ensuing batter, Arraez, bunted for a single to load the bases before Peterson went to a seventh pitch on Machado.
Juan Soto homered in the fifth to slice the Mets’ deficit to 6-3.
It was Soto’s 41st homer of the season, tying the career high he established last season with the Yankees.
Dom Hamel, in his major league debut, pitched a shutout sixth inning. The right-hander surrendered three hits in the frame, but caught a break when Arraez was thrown out by Soto attempting to stretch a single into a double.
The tag was applied before the lead runner crossed the plate, negating the run.
Francisco Alvarez homered leading off the bottom of the seventh to pull the Mets within 6-4.
Soto missed a game-tying homer to left by inches later in the inning — his shot just missed hitting the foul pole — before striking out against Mason Miller.
Ramón Laureano homered against Ryne Stanek in the ninth to increase the Padres’ lead to 7-4.
Soto came to the plate in the ninth as the tying run and was retired by Robert Suarez to end the game.
“We’re in a good spot, but we have got to get going today,” Soto said. “We cannot wait for tomorrow. Tomorrow is going to be too late. We have got to get going today, right now.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
