Mets' Freddy Peralta Reacts to Being Pulled in Loss

The right-hander was visibly frustrated after being pulled by manager Carlos Mendoza in the sixth after throwing only 92 pitches. But after the game, Peralta acknowledged that it was the right decision.

"I like to compete and I always want to stay in the game," Peralta said. "I knew that part of the situation I wasn't able to finish was because I gave up a base hit to the leadoff guy... I think at the end of the day, it was smart by Mendy."

Peralta looked more like himself in his second start than on Opening Day against Pittsburgh. However, he has yet to complete six innings as a Met, albeit it's only been two games. As a team, only one Mets starter has reached that mark through the team's first six games. That came from Kodai Senga in Tuesday's 3-0 loss to the Cardinals. He allowed two runs on four hits and three walks while striking out nine over six solid innings.

Getting length from starters was a big problem for New York that only worsened as the 2025 season progressed. Overall, New York's starters pitched just 796 innings in 2025, which was fourth-worst in baseball.

Yet despite not recording a quality start so far in 2026, Peralta had an important bounce-back outing yesterday.

"He was really good," Mendoza said. "The changeup usage was pretty impressive, a pitch that he didn’t use until like the fourth in his first outing, but today we went right to it, especially with the lefties they had in the lineup."

"There was also life on the fastball... he got swing-and-misses which made the fastball play a lot more."

Through two starts with New York, Peralta sports a 1-0 record with a 4.35 ERA. He also has fourteen strikeouts compared to just two walks over 10.1 innings.

Peralta will make his next start on Tuesday when the Mets return home to host the Arizona Diamondbacks.

If you like our content, choose Sports Illustrated as a preferred source on Google.