PHILADELPHIA — On the longest day of the calendar year, the Phillies turned out the lights early on Freddy Peralta.
Peralta’s first trip to Philadelphia as a member of the Mets turned out to be a nightmare as the right-hander allowed 10 earned runs on 10 hits and one walk across 2⅔ innings.
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It snowballed into one of the worst showings of the Mets this season as they dropped a lopsided 15-3 result to the Phillies in front of 43,402 fans on Saturday night at Citizens Bank Park.
“He got behind hitters. He had a hard time executing and every time he came in the zone, they got him,” Carlos Mendoza said. “There was a lot of hard contact there, but especially when you’re getting behind against a lineup like that, you’re gonna see games like this. I think it’s just more him getting ahead, trusting all of his pitches and competing in the strike zone.”
With another disastrous outing from a starting pitcher, the Mets let an opportunity to gather some momentum slip away. After back-to-back wins, the defeat slunk the Mets back to 34-42 on the season. They have not won three games in a row since May 27-31 and are now 8-9 in the month of June.
“I think that I have to make better pitches and just be more in the zone and probably execute better,” Peralta said. “I haven’t seen much about today, but I think that some crazy situations, but I cannot control some things that happened today but I also need to be better.”
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The Mets’ misery provided the Phillies fans plenty of satisfaction as Bryce Harper polished off the cycle with a two-run triple off Tobias Myers in the fifth inning. Harper homered off Peralta for the opening run of the game and added a double off the Mets starter in the third inning before he added a single off Cionel Perez in the same frame.
Kyle Schwarber hit two home runs in the third inning, with the former – a 456-foot solo shot against Peralta – opening the Phillies’ eight-hit, eight run stanza in which they sent up 12 batters in the frame. He added his 27th long ball in the seventh inning.
In the first inning, Peralta fell behind 2-0 to the first three batters before Harper found a fastball near the inner corner that he pulled to right field.
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In a 32-pitch second inning, he could not put away J.T. Realmuto, who pulled a 3-2 sweeper down the left-field line. Then, Justin Crawford knocked a high fastball into center field to make it 3-0. In the third inning, another hefty workload and some juicy pitches over the heart of the plate allowed the Phillies to pounce for six of their 10 hits against Peralta.
“I think it’s just more getting behind and then he’s got to come in and obviously guys know that fastball is his pitch, even though he’s been using changeups a lot more against lefties, the sweeper against righties, the curveball,” Mendoza said. “At the end of the day, you’ve got to get ahead and 2-0, 3-1 counts, they’re going to be sitting dead read on fastballs.”
It seems that every time Peralta turns a corner, he takes a step back. After back-to-back outings with four earned runs to close May, he allowed one earned run across six innings with six strikeouts against the Mariners. But his next outing, he gave up six earned runs to the Cardinals.
Peralta’s career-worst 10 earned runs on 10 hits, which matched a career high, came aftr he allowed one run across five innings to the Braves last time out.
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“I think I’ve been a little inconsistent, but I have time to be better,” Peralta said.
The Mets badly need Peralta to perform up to his potential, with uncertainty beyond Nolan McLean in the rotation.
Sean Manaea has pitched well in his first two starts, but Kodai Senga gave up four earned runs in the first inning of his return last time out against the Reds. Clay Holmes is still a long way from returning from a fractured tibia.
David Peterson, who will make another start on Sunday, has given up a combined 15 earned runs in 15.2 innings across his last four outings.
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“We’ve been having a little bit of a hard time here trying to get some winning streaks, but they’re too good, they’re talented,” Mendoza said. “We’ve got to be able to figure this out. We’re going to need them and we need them to get going here pretty soon. That’s when you start putting together some consistent winning baseball.”
The Mets acquired Peralta to lead their rotation after he finished with his third straight 200-strikeout campaign and a 2.70 ERA across 176⅔ innings last season. He’s leaning on that track record, which included a 3.59 ERA in eight seasons with the Brewers, to have faith that he will figure it out.
With Saturday’s brutal outing, Peralta’s ERA bulged from 3.90 to 4.83 and he dropped to 5-6 on the season.
There were potential positions where the Mets could have aided a scuffling Peralta in the game but could not complete the play.
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Alec Bohm reached on a single to begin the third inning before Realmuto’s double to the left-field corner. Bohm was touching third base as the relay throw reached Zack Short, but the ball popped out of his glove and he could not attempt a throw home.
One inning later after Schwarber homered and Harper doubled, Marcus Semien made a diving stop on a ground ball up the middle but threw it over Mark Vientos‘ head into the dugout as another run scored..
Two batters later, a deep fly ball from Bryson Stott fell at the base of the left-field wall but Juan Soto could not reach it as the third run of the inning scored.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NY Mets’ Freddy Peralta disastrous outing underscores Mets weakness
