Mets topple the Phillies again
Peterson matches career high with 10 strikeouts as N.Y. notches third straight win
David Peterson matched a career high with 10 strikeouts in six dominant innings and batterymate James Mccann hit his first home run with the Mets, sending New York past the Philadelphia Phillies 5-1 on Wednesday night for its third straight win.
Mccann had three hits, including a two-run homer in the eighth. Brandon Nimmo and Dominic Smith also got three hits apiece, and Francisco Lindor scored twice.
Peterson (1-1) outpitched former Mets starter Zack Wheeler, allowing only two hits and rebounding nicely from a rough outing in Philadelphia last week. The second-year lefty solved the NL East rival Phillies after entering with a 16.50 ERA in two career starts against them and a 2.64 ERA in nine outings versus all other teams.
Three relievers finished a three-hitter for New York. Aaron Loup got five outs and Edwin Diaz fanned two in a perfect ninth against the meat of the Phillies’ order.
Philadelphia batters struck out 14 times.
After starting the season 4-0, the slumping Phillies have dropped six of eight — including the first three games of this four-game set.
New York pounced early, scoring two runs against Wheeler in the first inning. The red-hot Nimmo got things started with a leadoff single against his former teammate, who needed 29 pitches to get through the first.
Lindor and Smith followed with backto-back singles, scoring Nimmo. Lindor came in when Pete Alonso grounded into
a double play.
Wheeler made his major league debut with the Mets and was 44-38 with a 3.77 ERA in 126 regular-season starts with them from 2013-19.
The right-hander left for a $118 million, five-year deal with the Phillies following the 2019 season. He is 1-1 with a 3.71 ERA in four starts against his old club.
Peterson quickly stifled a scoring threat an inning later, stranding J.T. Realmuto at second after the hard-hitting catcher reached on a two-base error by Smith in the left field.
Realmuto was the only Phillies batter to hit a ball out of the infield over the first four innings, lining out sharply to right in his second at-bat.
With one out in the fifth, Jean Segura
lined Peterson’s 2-0 offering over the left-field wall for his first home run of the year and Philadelphia’s first hit of the night. Rhys Hoskins’ sixth-inning single was the only other blemish on the ledger of the left-hander, who did not walk a batter.
Peterson threw 80 pitches, 57 for strikes.
Mccann’s two-run shot came against reliever Jojo Romero, his first homer with New York after signing a four-year, $40.6 million deal in December.
Nimmo has reached base safely at least twice in all eight games the Mets have played. After getting three singles Wednesday, New York’s oft-smiling leadoff hitter is 13-for-28 (.464) with eight walks on the season.