David Peterson Celebrates Birthday With 11 Strikeouts

It may have taken until his 29th birthday, but the New York Mets may finally be realizing the potential that David Peterson has always had. The left-hander has been excellent in the second half of the season and that run continued on Tuesday night against the Boston Red Sox.

On the night, Peterson went six innings, allowed one run on six hits, walked a batter, and struck out a career-high 11 batters on 89 pitches (65 strikes) as the Mets picked up a 7-2 win and their sixth victory in a row. It hasn’t been uncommon for the Mets to record wins when Peterson pitches. This year, they are 14-3 whenever the left-hander takes the mound.

Peterson made some history in terms of getting the win on his birthday, something a Mets pitcher has not done in over a decade.

The only run that the Red Sox scored against Peterson came in the top of the fifth when Nick Sogard recorded an RBI single. However, Boston would not record a single extra-base hit on the evening and Peterson would get a key strikeout of Jarren Duran two batters later to minimize the damage.

The key pitch for Peterson on Tuesday was his fastball. Out of the 20 swings-and-misses he got on the evening, 14 of them came on the fastball (according to Baseball Savant). Even when the Red Sox did make contact on the pitch, it wasn’t hard contact. They averaged an exit velocity of 65.5 miles-per-hour on that pitch.

Not only has Peterson been one of the most consistent starters the Mets have had this year, but he has also shown flashes of dominance, particularly with his 1.81 ERA over his last seven starts.

Over that seven-start stretch, Peterson has not allowed more than two earned runs. In addition, he has gone at least six innings in six of those starts. His 54 2/3 innings thrown since the All-Star break are tied with former Met Michael Wacha for fourth in all of baseball. In fact, Peterson and Sean Manaea (54 1/3 innings) are both in the top six in baseball over that span.

“I think good performances do that for you. They build confidence. Just to look back at the starts and what did I do well, what can I build off of, and what could I do better for the next one and try to simplify it the best I can,” said Peterson after his outing.

As the Mets have pulled within 1/2 game of a playoff spot, they have found their big three in the rotation with Peterson, Manaea, and Luis Severino. When Peterson is on his game, he at the very least keeps the offense in the game.

It was known that Peterson could provide a safe floor at the back end of the rotation, but now he is showing that he can also be dominant as well. Just the fact that he can strike out double-digit hitters and do it in less than 90 pitches takes his game to a different level.

With a good amount of the Mets rotation on one-year contracts going into the year, New York needed to see Peterson take his game to another level, and he has clearly shown signs of that this year.

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