David Peterson Stepping up in New York Mets' Injury Riddled Starting Rotation

David Peterson stepping up in New York Mets' injury riddled starting rotation.

With Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer on the shelf for the foreseeable future, the New York Mets will need all the help they can get from their healthy starters.

David Peterson, who started the year as the No. 7 starter on the team’s depth chart, now finds himself in an important role with the MLB team going forward.

The 26-year-old was up to the task on Monday night in San Francisco, as he held the Giants to two runs and yielded just three hits over six strong innings. Peterson struck out six and retired the last 11 batters to face him.

Six strong for @_David_Peterson. 💪 pic.twitter.com/HEepvtcsB8

— New York Mets (@Mets) May 24, 2022

As a result of this solid outing, the southpaw lowered his season ERA to a shiny 2.16 and has been worth 0.3 fWAR over five games (four starts).

“My mentality is always one pitch at a time,” Peterson told reporters after the win. “When you’re in a rhythm like that, it’s pretty easy to build off good pitches.”

Peterson has been shuffled back and forth between the majors and Triple A Syracuse to start the year. He previously filled in amicably while Taijuan Walker was on the I.L., posting a 0.64 ERA through two starts in April. 

After picking up his first win of the season in the first game of a doubleheader with the Atlanta Braves on May 3, Monday was Peterson's first MLB appearance in nearly three weeks. But he capitalized on the opportunity for a team that is attempting to weather the storm with their two big guns in deGrom and Scherzer on the sidelines.

After a 2021 season in which Peterson struggled and then dealt with an oblique injury and later foot surgery after breaking his right pinky toe, it was easy to forget about him for 2022.

It wasn’t that long ago, however, that Peterson was a first round draft pick in 2017, and even more recently that he had a successful rookie year in 2020, albeit in a small sample size.

"I think It's a little different now," Peterson said. "My rookie year, I felt good. I've always had confidence in my stuff and ability, but you go through things. Last year I did a lot of learning. There were some highs and lows. I felt like I came into a position in spring training where I learned a good amount from last year and was healthy from the injury. It was a good offseason and spring training, so It's just about building off of that and staying healthy." 

David Peterson speaks on if he's feeling more confident this season: pic.twitter.com/PLAPvxoOmS

— SNY (@SNYtv) May 24, 2022

While Peterson won’t blow anyone away at the dish with his fastball on average sitting in the 93 mph range, he has complemented it with a nasty slider that induced eight whiffs on Monday.

The pitch has a 52 percent whiff rate altogether this year, and opposing batters are hitting just .080 off of it.

The Mets have a grueling June schedule coming up, but thankfully hold an eight game division lead, with two more against the Giants, three against the Phillies and three against the Nationals where they have a chance to pad their lead even further before delving into the rigorous next month.

New York just needs Peterson to eat some innings and keep the team in the game for now, but if he can give them similar outings to what he did Monday, it will surely soften the blow of losing their big arms.

The third year pitcher will now have every chance to do so.

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