David Peterson gives Mets much-needed length in win over Brewers
Mets pitcher David Peterson celebrates in the dugout after leaving the game during the seventh inning against the Milwaukee Brewers on Thursday at Citi Field. Credit: Noah K. Murray
On a day when the Mets felt their share of angst, as two more pitchers went on the injured list and president of baseball operations David Stearns said “every option” to help the staff would be explored, David Peterson brought a measure of calm.
The lefthander pitched well into the seventh inning and Brandon Nimmo, Juan Soto and Pete Alonso each drove in a run as the Mets beat the Brewers, 3-2, in the rubber game of the series before 42,241 at Citi Field.
After a stretch of 14 losses in 17 games, the Mets have won two straight and taken a series for the first time since completing a three-game sweep of Washington from June 10-12.
Peterson (6-4) went 6 2⁄3 innings and gave up two runs, five hits and three walks with four strikeouts. It was his first win since June 11, a shutout of the Nationals. Ryne Stanek and Edwin Diaz got the last seven outs, with Diaz collecting his 18th save.
Before the game, the Mets put starter Paul Blackburn (shoulder impingement) and key reliever Dedniel Nunez (elbow sprain) on the injured list. Blackburn could begin throwing again in three to five days, but Nunez has a partially torn UCL, Stearns said. Manager Carlos Mendoza said a second Tommy John surgery (Nunez had one in 2021) is “on the table.”
The Mets now have five pitchers who could hold spots in the starting rotation on the IL: Kodai Senga, Sean Manaea, Tylor Megill, Griffin Canning and Blackburn.
“Every team is going to go through it and we’ve kind of been battling it right now and it sucks,” Peterson said. “We wish those guys the best, and at the same time, we’ve got a job to do. Being able to go as deep as I can, and, you know, pass it off to Stanek and Diaz was a good night.”
Nimmo hit a home run for the second straight game and Alonso had an RBI double off the top of the left-centerfield wall, but the most exciting play of the game may have come with the Mets in the field in the ninth.
After Diaz gave up a one-out single by pinch hitter Christian Yelich, Luis Torrens cut him down trying to steal with a perfect throw to shortstop Francisco Lindor that he caught right on the sliding Yelich’s hip. Yelich initially was called safe but a replay review got it overturned.
“Just having the ability to transfer, the exchange, the quickness and then being able to put that much on the throw and then just put it right there?” Mendoza said. “It doesn’t get any better.”
The Mets broke a 1-1 tie with a two-run sixth and Peterson and the relief corps made it stand up.
Starling Marte beat out an infield single and moved to third on Lindor’s sharp hit to right. Soto singled under the glove of diving second baseman Andruw Monasterio to make it 2-1 and Alonso hit a laser double for a 3-1 lead, although
Soto might have raised some eyebrows by not scoring on the play.
Peterson gave up a solo homer by Monasterio in the seventh before Stanek came on.
Nimmo, whose grand slam made him the hero of the Mets’ nightcap win in Wednesday’s doubleheader, went deep again as the Mets cracked the scoreboard first. In the second, he hit a first-pitch blast off former Met Jose Quintana for his 17th homer, a 363-foot shot to rightfield.
The Brewers tied it in the fourth when second baseman Brett Baty’s error gave them an extra out and Caleb Durbin got a two-out RBI single off Peterson.
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
