Mets' David Peterson lasts only two innings-plus, club falls to Marlins despite Juan Soto's two home runs
Mets starting pitcher David Peterson displeased with his outing on Saturday against the Marlins at Citi Field. Credit: Ed Murray
The Mets showed heart in Saturday afternoon’s comeback attempt against the Marlins, but heart was not enough in an 11-8 loss.
David Peterson put the Mets in an 8-2 hole in a two innings-plus dud, and even a four-homer power surge — including two by Juan Soto, the latter a two-run shot that tied it at 8 in the sixth — could not push them over the top.
Connor Norby’s seventh-inning sacrifice fly off Tyler Rogers gave Miami the go-ahead run, and his ninth-inning double off Edwin Diaz drove in two more insurance runs. The Mets were held scoreless for the final three innings in front of 42,726 at Citi Field.
“It starts on the mound,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “They’re a big-league team. I feel like the arms that we’ve faced this series, offensively, we’ve done a really, really good job. We haven’t been able to shut down their offense, an aggressive team that’s going to put the ball in play. We haven’t played clean baseball.”
The Mets (73-63) have dropped two of three games to the Marlins in this series, with the finale set for Sunday. They fell six games behind the NL East-leading Phillies, who beat Atlanta on Saturday night, and remained five games ahead of Cincinnati for the National League’s third wild card.
“Can’t worry about what’s in the past,” Mendoza said. “We got another one tomorrow and we got to be ready to go.”
Peterson was charged with a career-high eight runs and allowed eight hits and three walks. He faced five batters in the third inning without recording an out. “He didn’t have it today from the get-go,” Mendoza said.
The lefthander threw a season-low 65 pitches (36 strikes). He exited with a 7-2 deficit, the bases loaded and none out, though Chris Devenski — who tossed three hitless innings — allowed only one inherited runner to score on a 6-4-3 double play.
Soto shined, going 2-for-2 with three RBIs, three runs scored, two walks, a hit by pitch and two stolen bases. He reached 35 homers for the third consecutive season.
“Special player, man,” Mendoza said. “Special hitter that’s locked in right now.”
Rogers (4-5, 1.93 ERA) was charged with his second loss as a Met.
Tyler Phillips worked around Jeff McNeil’s one-out walk and Hayden Senger’s two-out single in the ninth for his third save, striking out Cedric Mullins to end it.
The Mets wasted Soto’s one-out walk — and ensuing stolen base before Brandon Nimmo’s inning-ending groundout — in a hitless eighth against Ronny Henriquez.
McNeil led off the seventh with a triple off Calvin Faucher (4-4, 3.27) but was stranded at third as Brett Baty, pinch hitter Starling Marte and Mullins went down in order.
Mark Vientos sliced the Mets’ deficit to 8-5 in the third with a three-run shot to rightfield, his eighth homer in August.
Soto’s two-out solo shot to right-center in the fourth cut it to 8-6.
Soto’s second homer, a two-run shot that was scorched at 111.6 mph off the bat and traveled 382 feet to right-centerfield, tied it at 8 in the sixth.
“It feels good, but at the end of the day, you want to win the game,” he said. “Even if you come through or not, you want to win the game. So it’s not all that satisfying when you lost the game.”
Marlins righthander Edward Cabrera, whose ERA rose from 3.32 to 3.57, allowed six runs (five earned) and eight hits in a four-inning start.
Peterson, an All-Star for the first time in his career this season, already has reached career highs in innings (152) and starts (26), but it has been a tale of two seasons for him.
He was dominant in his first 13 starts, going 5-2 with a 2.49 ERA, 1.19 WHIP and 71 strikeouts in 79 2⁄3 innings — 6.1 innings per start. In his last 13 starts, he is 3-3 with a 4.85 ERA, a 1.44 WHIP and 65 strikeouts in 72 1⁄3 innings — 5.6 innings per start.
His previous two starts were strong, as he allowed three runs and nine hits and struck out 18 in 13 2⁄3 innings, but Saturday reversed the goodwill.
“I felt like a lot of the stuff was similar,” Peterson said. “Just, this was a bad day.”
The Marlins (64-72) tagged Peterson for five runs in the first inning. Heriberto Hernandez doubled home a run and Eric Wagaman and Joey Wiemer each had a two-run double.
The Mets chipped away with a run in each of the first two innings. Francisco Lindor hit a leadoff homer that just cleared the rightfield wall. Miami gifted the Mets their second run with two two-out errors, the latter an errant throw from Agustin Ramirez on Mullins’ steal of second that allowed Baty to score.
In the third, Peterson allowed a leadoff double by Hernandez, walks to Wagaman and Norby and run-scoring singles by Jakob Marsee and Wiemer before he was pulled.
Said Mendoza: “One of those days when he had to battle, and it was a struggle for him.”
Ben Dickson is Newsday Sports' general assignment reporter. He joined Newsday’s high school sports staff in 2023 after graduating from Maryland, where he covered several of the Terrapins' teams.
