Freddy Peralta simply didn’t have it Tuesday.
And Carlos Mendoza, as the Mets sit at 29-37, could only chalk it up as “just one of those days.”
The 30-year-old starter was a tick down in velocity across all his pitches, including 1.1 mph on his fastball, which has sat at 93.9 this season.
It was enough for the NL wild-card-leading Cardinals to take advantage, driving in six runs across six innings on Peralta in the Mets’ discouraging 7-0 loss to start a six-game homestand.
“A little off today for some reason,” Mendoza said before adding there was no concern over the velocity.
“[Pitching coach Justin Willard] checked on him. He said he’s fine. He wouldn’t put himself in a position where something was bothering him,” he said. “He was going to continue to pitch there. I think it was just one of those days. It was hard for him.”
Peralta also had little to say about how or why the outing turned south for him in what was a quiet postgame clubhouse at Citi Field.
“I felt it [the decreased velocity] a little bit. But I don’t know. I feel good. … It just happens sometimes,” he said.
The game got away from Peralta in the third inning.
After a walk, Nathan Church ripped a double, and rookie JJ Wetherholt followed with a single at the top of the order that sent in two runs.
Following that spurt, Peralta hit Iván Herrera with a pitch, and Jordan Walker knocked him in with a double before scoring off a ground ball to first by Lars Nootbaar.
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It gave St. Louis an early 4-0 lead that only grew, resulting in his worst outing of the season.
Heading into Tuesday, Peralta held a 3.63 ERA with 30 walks and 74 strikeouts across 13 games. Following the loss, his ERA imploded to 4.04.
When asked how he would assess his season so far, he was blunt and said, “Not good right now.”
“Talking about numbers. At the end of the day, that’s all that matters,” Peralta went on. “But you know. I’ve been in this situation before. Good thing is that I’m healthy, and I have 18, 19 more games in front of me. I just have to keep competing. That’s it, and at the end of the day, that’s how I see it.”
