NEW YORK — David Peterson is back in the majors. And for at least one game, it was the good version.
The Mets beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 7-2, Tuesday on a night during which they made it look easy. Peterson tossed six scoreless innings in his return to the majors, Brandon Nimmo hit two of the Mets’ four home runs and Francisco Lindor’s backhand-to-jump-throw move for the last out of Peterson’s outing highlighted a crisp defensive effort.
Peterson, though, was the main event. After surviving a 27-pitch first inning — which he escaped by getting Owen Miller to ground into a bases-loaded, first-pitch double play — he mostly cruised. Facing the second-lowest-scoring lineup in the National League, he scattered five hits and three walks and struck out five.
Over the first month and a half of the season, Peterson had pitched so poorly that the Mets (36-43) demoted him to the minors in mid-May. He fared poorly with Triple-A Syracuse, too, but club decision-makers chose him over another lefthander, Joey Lucchesi, who had performed better, for this start.
“We've seen some encouraging things with locations and the shape of the pitches,” general manager Billy Eppler said before the game. “We're hoping to give David another run. Some of the components that drive success — strikeout rate, walk rate — those things are there. And he was attacking the strike zone more in recent outings.”
A key difference for Peterson (2-6) in his return: He severely cut down on the frequency with which he threw his slider, which usually is his best pitch but this year has not been effective. He used it 25% of the time earlier this season but less than half as often in this game. In its place, he went to his sinker and changeup more often.
The Mets’ lineup, meanwhile, lit up righthander Julio Teheran, who after spending a year in Mexico, an independent league, the Dominican Winter League and the minors has enjoyed a major-league revival with Milwaukee (41-38). He allowed seven runs in 5 2/3 innings, causing his ERA to nearly double from 1.53 to 2.85.
Nimmo led off the bottom of the fourth with a solo home run, the Mets’ first baserunner. Lindor added his own homer that inning. Nimmo went deep again in the fifth, and Daniel Vogelbach followed in the sixth.
