☀️ Good Morning:
Who needs Paul Skenes when you have David Peterson?
Who needs anything when you have the Mets and Knicks playing like this?
The stars were out in the big city, both at Madison Square Garden and Citi Field. And the stars seem to be aligned for a magical season for New York sports.
The Knicks are one win away from potentially securing home-court advantage in the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 1994. We will let you read about that over at Knicks Film School.
The Mets have found a way to bottle the magic that took them to baseball’s version of the conference finals last October to begin this season with one of their best starts in club history
Facing Skenes for the first time at Cit Field, Peterson was up for the task. And so was the meat of the lineup to overcome spotty defense and spark two late rallies and deliver a walk-off, 4–3, victory in front of an energetic crowd.
Talk about home-court advantage, the Amazins have won the first game of all seven home series this season and improved to 16–4 at Citi Field, tied for the best start to a season in team history (also 1972 and 2015).
☕️ Grab your coffee for your morning dose of Mets Fix!
🆚 Showdown
The Pirates are in last place in the National League Central for a reason. We know they aren’t very good. But on any given night when Paul Skenes is on the mound, they can compete with anybody.
It looked like the Buccos might hand Skenes an early lead after Peterson issued two, two-out walks in the first. But the composed lefty opened up his repertoire to strikeout Matt Gorski using three different pitches, including a curveball for the final whiff.
Starting games strong is important. Peterson has allowed just two runs in the first inning, tied for the fewest in the majors since the beginning of last season.
Finishing games is just as important. Peterson went frame-by-frame against one of baseball’s elite starters and would have perfectly matched him if not for a home run by Isiah Kiner-Falefa, who seemed destined to have a special night after meeting his cousin — Ralph Kiner’s son, Scott — before the game.
Peterson had all of his pitches working for him in different ways, earning at least one whiff from each of his five offerings, totaling 17 on 47 swings.
After dueling with Skenes, he has allowed three earned runs or less in each of his eight starts this season and in each of his last nine starts dating back to last September.
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