David Peterson shelled again as Mets’ woes continue with loss to Nationals
WASHINGTON — The good news for the Mets is the easy part of the schedule is behind them.
Thirteen straight games against the underwhelming Tigers, Rockies, Reds and Nationals, and the Mets managed to win — drumroll please — four times.
For a team that entered the season with World Series aspirations, that’s not good.
Monday afternoon presented the Mets with a chance to at least finish this stretch (or is it stench?) with a winning series, but they punted that opportunity into the Potomac in a 10-3 loss to the Nationals.
David Peterson’s latest rough start, coupled with a Francisco Alvarez base-running flub and suspect offense sent the Mets home with a split in the four-game series.
The Mets have had seven straight non-winning series since beating the Dodgers two of three games in Los Angeles last month.
“You are going to go through ups and downs, and in September of last year we were supposed to win every game and we didn’t,” Brandon Nimmo said. “Sometimes you just go through bad times and I don’t care who is on the other side, they are major league baseball players. … It might have seemed easier, but on a [daily] basis if you are not clicking then it doesn’t matter who you are playing in the big leagues.”
Next stop is Citi Field, where the Mets will play three games against the Rays, easily the best team in the major leagues over the season’s first six weeks.
The lefty Peterson remained in the Mets rotation — he had returned last week with Max Scherzer scratched against the Reds with neck spasms — because manager Buck Showalter wanted a sixth starter to provide extra rest for Justin Verlander and Kodai Senga without an off day within this stretch.
But Peterson’s starts have turned into almost automatic losses as he’s struggled with his command, particularly with his slider.
On this day he allowed six earned runs on nine hits and two walks over five innings and saw his ERA bounce to 8.08.
The Mets (20-22) have lost seven of the eight games he’s started this season and five straight.
Tommy Hunter surrendered a two-run homer to CJ Abrams in the sixth that further buried the Mets.
“Not getting off to a great start with the slider is something that has been kind of frustrating,” Peterson said.
Showalter said the lefty’s biggest problem has been leaving pitches over the plate.
“You keep thinking he’s getting ready to find his step and give you five or six innings and it just never happened for him,” Showalter said. “He’s not the only one.”
The offensive shortcomings start with the fact the Mets haven’t homered in 52 innings, extending to last Wednesday when Pete Alonso went deep in Cincinnati.
The Mets have scored three runs or fewer in five of their last six games.
A mental lapse by Alvarez helped crush a potential big inning for the Mets in the second.
After Jeff McNeil stroked an RBI single to tie it 1-1, Eduardo Escobar singled and Alvarez’s walk loaded the bases with two outs against Patrick Corbin.
With Nimmo at the plate, Alvarez strayed too far from first base and was picked off by catcher Keibert Ruiz to end the inning.
Peterson fell into a 5-1 hole in the fourth inning, with two walks and two singles as the impetus.
Dominic Smith scored the inning’s first run, waltzing in from third base as Alvarez’s throw to second attempting to nail base stealer Abrams skipped past McNeil.
The ensuing batter, Lane Thomas, walked and Luis Garcia delivered an RBI single.
In the third, Peterson surrendered three straight hits, including an RBI double to Joey Meneses that gave the Nationals a 2-1 lead.
Ruiz’s sacrifice fly brought in Garcia, who had singled.
The Mets’ first-inning woes continued with Meneses’ RBI double.
It marked the 11th time in the last 13 games the Mets were scored upon in the first inning.
Overall, the Mets have been outscored 37-9 in the first inning this season.
“There’s a lot of things you can probably point at [for the losses], but it’s how do you fix it?” Nimmo said. “From my standpoint I am just telling the guys and myself to go and not give one at-bat away. You just go and you grind every single time until you find it. You just don’t try and do the same thing all the time. You have to try different things. That is the only way I have found success in my career is by being open to trying new things.”
