Peterson, Lucchesi Respond To Criticism With Solid Starts

Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

Following two clunkers in a row against sub .500 teams, New York Mets left-hander David Peterson responded loudly on Monday night with six innings of one hit baseball in a shutout against the first place Chicago Cubs.

This, of course, comes just one day after fellow southpaw Joey Lucchesi reached the fifth inning for the first time as a Met. Pitching against his former Padres teammates for the second time, Lucchesi allowed just one run and struck out six over five strong innings.

Postgame on Monday night, Mets manager Luis Rojas said he’s really proud of how the rotation as a whole has stepped up the last time through.

“Every single starter that’s here right now in our rotation has worked really hard to get better and perform the way their performing out there. Some haven’t had the consistency throughout the year, but they’ve worked really hard to do that. I’m glad they did it this time through, and we’re looking forward to if they can do it the next time through,” the second-year skipper said.

The Mets’ starting rotation allowed just three earned runs, walked just five, and struck out 36 batters, while posting a 0.89 ERA over 30 innings of work this last time through. On the season, they now have a combined 2.72 ERA, which ranks as the best in baseball.

As put best by Ron Darling on Monday night’s broadcast, Peterson appeared to be “pitching pissed off” following his struggles. This certainly showed right away, as the lefty struck out former NL MVP Kris Bryant with a 96 MPH fastball in the top of the first, which was the hardest pitch he’s thrown to this point in his career.

After a strong rookie season, Peterson has been inconsistent throughout his 2021 campaign, but has dominated at Citi Field. Over 25.2 innings in front of the hometown crowd, the young left-hander has posted a 3.16 ERA.

Monday night was no different as he put together one of, if not, the best starts of his sophomore campaign. Peterson allowed just one hit, walked two, and struck out three over six shutout innings in the team’s 5-2 series opening win.

Lucchesi, on the other hand, has been in the process of righting the ship over his last couple of starts. Since his first strong outing against the Marlins on May 22nd, Lucchesi is chruving his way to a 1.56 ERA, .552 OPS against, and he is striking out more than a batter per inning.

With injuries to Carlos Carrasco and Noah Syndergaard, the backend of the Mets’ rotation was a huge question mark heading into the 2021 season. Those question marks only became larger with both lefties struggling for extended periods of time to begin the year.

The Mets will need both Lucchesi and Peterson to provide more answers than questions over the next handful of weeks as we quickly approach the trading deadline. If one or both of the starters can’t prove to be a piece to the Mets’ puzzle, they might force Zack Scott’s hand to bring in rotation help down the stretch.

Both lefties will receive more than a plethora of chances to prove their worth in the starting rotation, and they certainly made some great first steps in that direction over these past two games.

The post Peterson, Lucchesi Respond To Criticism With Solid Starts first appeared on Metsmerized Online.