Peralta's rocky first inning

Freddy Peralta's first inning as the Mets' ace had its ups and downs — or rather, one big down followed by one big up.

Peralta, who joined the Mets via a trade from the Brewers in the offseason, allowed a full-count single to Pirates leadoff batter Oneil Cruz. On the next pitch, Peralta left a 79.9-mph curveball over the middle of the plate for Brandon Lowe, who sent it over the rightfield wall past a leaping Carson Benge for a two-run homer.

Peralta settled down quickly after that, getting swinging strikeouts of Bryan Reynolds and Marcell Ozuna and getting Ryan O'Hearn to strike out looking to get out of the inning.