David Peterson made his third start of the season last night against the Lexington Legends of the South Atlantic League. It would be another decent performance for the young lefty, as Peterson set out to build on his early pitching line through his first two starts of 13 hits allowed through his first 11.2 innings, along with three walks against seven strikeouts.
Peterson battled his control a bit in this one, walking four batters in his five innings of work, but striking out six. In total, Peterson would allow only two runs, which were unearned, on four hits, throwing 89 pitches.
Peterson began his night strong with two scoreless innings, but ran into a bit of trouble in the third, when a Blake Tiberi error contributed to a couple of unearned runs. That would be Peterson’s only blemish on the night, as he worked his plus slider for called and swinging strikes consistently through the evening.
Roughly resembling the Giants ace Madison Bumgarner, in terms of both physical stature (Peterson’s frame is a size-able 6 feet 6 inches and roughly 250 pounds) and repertoire (primarily fastball-slider from a high three-quarters slot), Peterson hails from Oregon University, where he built a stellar reputation for plus command in his final year for the Ducks.
Peterson walked only 15 batters in 100 innings that year against 140 strikeouts, having the Mets excited to nab him with their first round pick in last year’s draft.
As Peterson climbs the Mets minor league system in what may be a rapid ascent to Citi Field, he will look to continue honing his fastball command. While the slider is Peterson’s go-to breaking pitch, he does also employ a more vertical breaking curveball, which flashes plus. Last night was another solid step in the young prospect’s progress.
As far as other Fireflies performances of note last evening, right handed reliever Stephen Villines did not have it in this one, as he allowed Lexington to score five runs on three extra-base hits in the eighth inning, which ultimately doomed Columbia to a 7-6 loss.
Joshua Payne and Darwin Ramos pitched well in this one in relief of Peterson, with Ramos in particular flashing a plus curveball. Offensively, it was another game in which everyone pitched in, with Edgardo Fermin picking up a couple of singles, raising his OPS back up to .724.
First baseman Jeremy Vasquez extended his on-base streak to 24 games with a single in his only at-bat, he’s slashing .333/.460/.551 on the season.
Hansel Moreno, recently added to the Fireflies roster, had a very nice game, with two walks, a hit, and a stolen base. Moreno flashed a strong arm at third base as well.
The Fireflies will look to get back on track as they continue the series with Lexington, as Marcel Renteria comes off the DL to take to the bump Wednesday afternoon.
