Mets fall again as David Peterson eats six earned runs in 9-2 loss to Cardinals

David Peterson tried to keep his mindset anchored to the next start, but Wednesday night at Citi Field quickly turned into another difficult Mets pitching display. New York fell 9-2 to the St. Louis Cardinals, and Peterson’s outing became the center of the damage as he lasted 3 2/3 innings while allowing six earned runs.

According to the game report, the Cardinals’ damage included two home runs that landed off Peterson. Nelson Velázquez and Jordan Walker each went deep, turning what could have been a series of manageable innings into a multi-run stretch the Mets struggled to recover from.

The scoring pattern mattered for New York beyond the final margin. When runs come early and repeatedly off the same starter, it forces the bullpen to cover more innings than planned and compresses the rest of the rotation’s workload. In this case, Peterson’s early exit meant the Mets had to absorb additional innings behind him while St. Louis built the lead.

For Peterson, the phrase “one game at a time” captured the posture of a veteran trying to slow the emotional drift that can come with extended struggles. The Mets’ challenge is that professional pitchers are often judged on what their next start produces, and the same questions keep returning when the earned-run totals pile up.

This loss also arrived in the middle of a difficult stretch for the Mets, with the report describing “struggles hit new low.” While one game does not define a season, it does show how quickly a team can fall behind when its pitching staff is under pressure and opponents are turning mistakes into extra-base impact.

St. Louis, meanwhile, made Peterson’s outing look simple. Two homers to different hitters changed the geometry of the game and helped the Cardinals convert runs into cushion, reducing the Mets’ ability to claw back once New York trailed by multiple scores.

The immediate next step for New York will be regrouping behind its next starter and tightening the areas that allowed power to land. For Peterson, the focus will be on whether the approach that kept him mentally steady can translate into a cleaner sequence that limits hard contact, especially early in the count and early in the inning.