Mets' David Peterson struggles in second straight loss to Pirates

For a Pirates team that entered Friday as one of the worst offensive teams in all of baseball, this was certainly not the outing the Mets were hoping for out of Peterson, especially after losing fellow starter Griffin Canning for the rest of the season with a ruptured left Achilles.

Peterson's ERA has now climbed from 2.98 to 3.30 after this start against the Pirates, with the lefty hurler allowing 10 earned runs over his last two starts combined.

Manager Carlos Mendoza spoke about what's been going on with Peterson after back-to-back rough starts when he met with reporters following Friday's lopsided loss.

"One of those stretches where back-to-back outings, gotta go back, watch film and make some adjustments," Mendoza said. "When he's good, he's able to get the changeup, he's able to get swings and misses with his slider, getting weak groundballs, weak contact in the past couple of outings, obviously we haven't seen that."

Peterson pointed out his three free passes he issued as a reason for his struggles against the Pirates, saying after the game, "Giving up free bases is something we don't want to do. So yeah, it needs to get better."

New York currently has very few options for their rotation, as they're still waiting for Sean Manaea (right oblique strain) to make his season debut , while Kodai Senga (hamstring strain) and Tylor Megill (right elbow strain) are both on the injured list. So Peterson can ill afford to struggle on the mound and continue to tax the Mets' bullpen.

The Amazins' will hope for better fortunes on Saturday with Paul Blackburn on the mound for them, going up against the Pirates' Bailey Falter.