Peralta Struggles in Mets’ Loss to Cardinals
On Tuesday, Freddy Peralta faced a challenging game. Mets manager Carlos Mendoza, whose team is currently at 29-37, simply described it as “just one of those days.”
Peralta, now 30 years old, has noticed a slight decline in his pitch velocity this season, with his fastball averaging just 93.9 mph. This drop gave the Cardinals, who lead the NL Wild Card, an edge as they began a six-game homestand, scoring six runs against Peralta and handing the Mets a 7-0 defeat.
“Today I was a little off for some reason,” mentioned Mendoza, though he downplayed concerns about Peralta’s speed.
Even pitching coach Justin Willard checked in with Peralta and reassured him. Peralta was determined to push through, stating, “I think it was just one of those days. It was tough for him.”
Post-game, Peralta remained tight-lipped about the struggles the team faced during their road trip, saying in the subdued clubhouse, “I felt it [the decreased velocity] somewhat. But I don’t know. I feel good…It just happens every once in a while.”
In the third inning, things began to go downhill for Peralta. After a walk, Nathan Church connected for a double, followed by rookie J.J. Weatherholt’s single, which opened the scoring for a two-run lead. Peralta then hit Ivan Herrera with a pitch, and Jordan Walker doubled before scoring on Lars Nootbaar’s groundout, quickly giving St. Louis a 4-0 advantage. It only got worse from there, leading to the Mets’ toughest loss this season.
Prior to this game, Peralta’s ERA stood at 3.63, with 30 walks and 74 strikeouts across 13 games. However, the loss pushed it up to 4.04. When asked about his performance so far this season, he candidly admitted, “It’s not good right now.”
“We’re talking about numbers. At the end of the day, that’s all that matters,” he said. “But, you know, I’ve been in this situation before. Luckily, I’m healthy, and I’ve got 18, 19 games left in front of me. I just have to keep competing. That’s it. At the end of the day, that’s how I look at it.”
