Mets rookie David Peterson helps keep the team afloat in his MLB debut

With the New York Mets pitching struggling to stay afloat, can David Peterson help keep the shortened season alive for the team?

The start of the shortened season has come with a great deal of unpredicted stress for the New York Mets. After the announcement of Marcus Stroman‘s calf injury and Robert Gsellman‘s tendonitis and Rick Porcello‘s disappointing debut, the hope of a successful season was already starting to waver.

So when the Mets decided to call up 2017 first-round draft pick David Peterson, not many people knew what to expect.

Despite what anyone expected, what the Mets did get was a 24-year-old pitcher who showed the “poise, maturity and confidence” that Rojas said he had. Over 5.2 innings pitched, the California native threw 78 pitches, 40 of which were off-speed pitches.

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Going into the game, it was known that Peterson’s fastball isn’t anything special but this did not affect him from being a dominant pitcher who spent his MLB debut attacking the strike zone with his nasty changeup.

With the 78 pitches, Peterson threw 48 strikes, striking out three, allowing two runs on seven hits, and two walks with him exiting the game in the 6th finishing his debut with a 3.18 ERA.

Peterson ran into some tough situations as the Red Sox batting line up continued to put pressure on the young pitcher loading the bases in several different instances. Even in these circumstances Peterson impressively kept his cool and managed to get out of each situation by being quick to the ball when it was put into play and strategically chose his pitch selection to fit the situation.

A prime example of this was in the third inning as bases started loading and JD Martinez was on deck to bat. After striking out Martinez looking on a changeup, he ran into some hot water due to Kevin Plackwecki getting home from third.

Even the most experienced of pitchers would feel nervous in that situation, let alone a 24 year old in his first MLB start.

Yet Peterson managed to stay calm and work with his team to get the rest of the outs to retire the inning with just the one run scored. Peterson ended up being relieved by Drew Smith in the 6th after Kevin Pillar hit a two-out double RBI.

Overall considering the circumstances, Peterson did a great job of staying calm, executing his pitches, and minimizing the damage in sticky situations in his debut with the Mets.

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Hopefully, Peterson will continue to be a helpful addition to the Mets starting lineup until Marcus Stroman is cleared to play again.