David Peterson’s second-half nosedive continued on Tuesday night, and now his place in the rotation is uncertain heading into the final days of the regular season, and perhaps the postseason.
The veteran southpaw was tagged for five runs on five hits in just 1.1 innings of work against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field, though his team was able to pick him up and storm back for a vital 9-7 win to get them back in a playoff spot.
Over his last nine starts, Peterson has an 8.42 ERA, which has ruined a season that featured his first-career All-Star selection following a solid first half. He remained consistent in the first few weeks following the Midsummer Classic, as he held a 2.83 ERA on Aug. 1.
Waking up Wednesday morning, that season figure is now at a 4.22.
When asked whether Peterson will make his next start, which is scheduled for the regular-season finale on Sunday in Miami against the Marlins, manager Carlos Mendoza was non-committal, saying that an appearance out of the bullpen, instead, was a possibility.
“Where we’re at nowadays, we’ve got to take it one game at a time,” Mendoza said. “Maybe he starts a game, but we have to get there.”
Peterson, however, expressed he was not “concerned at all” about his role in the rotation despite the recent struggles. It echoes what he told amNewYork last week, when he stated that “I am a starter. I think that’s point blank.”
The postseason has started early for the Mets, though, partly because the starting rotation was so poor from June through August and into September. It forced the organization to call up each of its top three pitching prospects, Nolan McLean, Brandon Sproat, and Jonah Tong — each of whom has helped stabilize a sputtering group that has seen Kodai Senga demoted to Triple-A, Sean Manea and Clay Holmes piggybacking off each other, and Peterson hitting a proverbial wall.
Should they punch a ticket into October, the Mets will deploy a three-man rotation for the best-of-three Wild Card series, and Peterson is anything but a lock to make it.
