David Peterson picks up where his Mets breakout left off in near-perfect spring debut

Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Mike Puma about the inside buzz on the Mets from spring training PORT ST.LUCIE — This was the version of David Peterson the Mets came to know last year, the version of Peterson they’ll need — perhaps even more critically — again this year.The southpaw made his first Grapefruit League outing on Monday against the Marlins and picked up right where he left off last year, tossing three scoreless innings with five strikeouts and surrendering just one hit and no walks.“Really good,” manager Carlos Mendoza said of Peterson.

“Three [innings], all of his pitches were really, really good, especially the slider.That’s a pitch that, last year, he had trouble with, in my opinion.

Today, he got some swings and misses.Fastball was really good for the first time out.

Curveball, everything.”Peterson entered in the third inning and struck out two of the first three batters he faced in a perfect frame, then navigated around a leadoff single in the fourth before another 1-2-3 frame in the fifth.He threw 37 total pitches, 25 of which were strikes, forced five swings-and-misses and topped out at 94 mph in an impressive showing.He threw his slider nine times, four for strikes.And four of his five forced swings-and-misses came from that slider.It was a rare weak spot for Peterson last year, when opposing hitters owned a .287 average and .777 OPS against the pitch, per FanGraphs — way higher than any of his other pitches.

Perhaps it’s a sign there’s another level to his game.“Felt like I was able to execute some good sliders, fastball felt good coming out,” Peterson said.“I had some curveballs later on that we were able to work on.

I was able to see some good stuff out of everything.”He followed Kodai Senga, who pitched two scoreless innings in his own spring debut.Both are being counted on atop a Mets rotation that is filled with question marks.Peterson’s ...