NEW YORK -- Right-hander Freddy Peralta is the ace of the Mets’ pitching staff, and they needed him to stop the bleeding on Sunday afternoon with New York on a four-game losing streak.
The losing streak is now at 5 after the 1-0 loss.
Peralta gave the Mets a fighting chance against the Athletics before leaving the game after six innings with his team down, 1-0. It was his first quality start of the season.
The Athletics made him work hard. In the second inning, Max Muncy had a 10-pitch at-bat, then two batters later, Darell Hernaiz battled Peralta for eight pitches and drew a walk. Overall, Peralta threw 100 pitches.
Peralta’s only blemish came in the third inning, when Nick Kurtz swung at an 0-2 pitch and sent the ball over the right-field wall for his first home run of the season.
Unfortunately, he was left with his first loss of the season. New York’s offense collected only four hits. Aaron Civale started the game for the A's and allowed all four of those hits in his 5 2/3-inning outing.
The only time Civale was in trouble was in the sixth inning. The Mets had runners on first and second and one out, but Civale induced Jorge Polanco to hit into a force play. Civale left the game in favor of left-hander Hogan Harris, who was able to get pinch-hitter Mark Vientos to fly out to right fielder Lawrence Butler.