Peterson looked good against the Marlins.
The Mets’ offense understandably got a lot of attention last night, but starting pitcher David Peterson had a praiseworthy outing, too, in his season debut.
The 29-year-old lefty went six innings, gave up a pair of solo home runs but nothing else, struck out nine, walked three, and allowed five hits. And he threw 89 pitches, 57 of which were strikes, while generating 11 swinging strikes for an above-average
As for the pitch mix, here’s the rundown of how many times he threw each of the following pitches.
- Sinker: 28 (31.4%)
- Four-seam fastball: 21 (23.6%)
- Changeup: 21 (23.6%)
- Slider: 12 (13.5%)
- Curveball: 7 (7.9%)
That mostly lines up with his pitch mix from last season. The exception was his changeup, which he threw pretty heavily last night. Last year, Peterson threw his slider a bit more than the change, though there were a bunch of starts that saw him throw the changeup more than the slider.
baseballsavant.mlb.com
And although he didn’t throw his slider often last night, it was a put-away pitch for Peterson. Per Statcast, five of his nine strikeouts ended on sliders. Let’s have a look at all nine strikeouts.
Finally, let’s see how all of Peterson’s pitches were thrown from the batter’s perspective, a breakdown that highlights how effectively Peterson used his slider, particularly against right-handed hitters.