Mets’ David Peterson ‘getting back to who I am’ with promising relief outing

PHOENIX — David Peterson received no love from his defense, particularly third baseman Andy Ibáñez, but he did his part to give the Mets an opportunity to win Sunday.

The lefty, who has been placed in the bullpen to work as a bulk reliever, pitched five innings without allowing an earned run in the team’s 5-1 loss to the Diamondbacks.

All three runs that scored with Peterson on the mound followed Ibáñez’s second throwing error of the day, in the sixth inning.

“I think it’s just getting back to who I am as a pitcher, getting the sinker down, and using the four-seamer,” said Peterson, who owns a 5.49 ERA. “I feel like I have had better feel the last couple of outings with the changeup and the sliders continue to be good.”

Peterson surrendered two earned runs over four innings in relief on Monday in Colorado, both scoring after Carson Benge tripped chasing a fly ball in the outfield.

Peterson has been less successful as a starter.

In each of his last four appearances as a starter Peterson has surrendered at least four earned runs.

That included a seven-run meltdown over 3 ²/₃ innings against the Nationals in his last start, on April 29.

“I thought he was really good today,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “He got ground balls, made pitches, we didn’t make a couple of plays and it ended up costing us runs. But overall, I thought he threw the ball very well.”

Mendoza utilized Huascar Brazobán as the opener, sticking with him into the second inning and got burned when the right-hander walked two batters to begin the frame.

Tobias Myers got two outs before Ryan Waldschmidt delivered a two-run double for the game’s first scoring.

“Overall, [Brazobán] had a hard time throwing strikes today,” Mendoza said.

Mendoza said he didn’t consider using Myers to start the second inning because of the right-hander’s recent workload.

“Toby was short today,” Mendoza said. “We knew we were going to try to get through the first time through the lineup with the two of them, it just didn’t work.”