PORT ST. LUCIE — David Peterson and Tylor Megill weren’t exactly strike-throwers Sunday.
The two pitchers competing for the Mets’ rotation vacancy combined for nine walks over 7 ²/₃ innings, but Peterson at least minimized damage, whereas Megill’s afternoon snowballed, with porous defense behind him a culprit.
“They are both fine,” manager Buck Showalter said after the Mets’ 8-7 exhibition loss to the Cardinals at Clover Park. “They are physically in a good place, they got their pitch count up and I am OK with where both those guys are.”
Ultimately, both could get a shot in the rotation to start the season.
Showalter indicated he is considering the possibility of a six-man rotation for the first turn through, as the Mets are scheduled to play eight straight days beginning with the March 30 opener in Miami.
Jose Quintana’s rib surgery that will keep him sidelined at least into July has created the rotation vacancy behind Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, Kodai Senga and Carlos Carrasco.
Peterson walked four over four shutout innings and struck out four with one hit allowed.
Upset with the walks, Peterson slammed his glove in disgust in the dugout after recording the final out in the second inning.
“I have mixed feelings about it, good and bad,” Peterson said about his outing. “There’s stuff I need to clean up and stuff that I thought I did well, but overall I got my pitches in and thought I did well and felt good about where we are headed.”
Megill allowed six runs (three of which were unearned following two errors) on six hits and five walks over 3 ²/₃ innings.
Showalter removed the right-hander because of pitch-count concerns in the eighth and then reinserted him in the ninth.
“Not my best day to say the least,” Megill said. “I couldn’t really locate a slider today, so that was a big problem and it was a little bit all over the place. I had a good curveball today and threw some good fastballs to the top of the zone, I was trying to work today, but more walks than necessary.”
Megill pitched to a 1.93 ERA in five starts to begin last season before injuries derailed him.
He has returned this spring with a decrease in fastball velocity that he has in part attributed to trying to conserve his energy for later in the game.
On Sunday, his four-seam fastball averaged 93.9 mph.
Last year he averaged 95.7 mph with that pitch.
“When you are up [in the regular season] it’s a totally different atmosphere compared to spring training, adrenaline and all that other stuff, so it could be different,” Megill said.
Peterson pitched to a 3.83 ERA in 28 appearances overall for the Mets last season, 19 of which were starts. He still has not surrendered a run this spring.
“I felt like at some point in the day I had a good feel for all my pitches,” Peterson said. “I felt like I was able to command them and see what I wanted out of them. The curveball felt good to use it in the middle part there a lot more and it just felt good to get all of them in and come out of the game and still feel like I had plenty more in the tank.”
Megill and Peterson are expected to receive another piggyback start next weekend before a decision is reached, whether that’s on one starter or both, with the six-man rotation potentially in play to start the season.
“Today I didn’t [pitch] to the best of my ability, so obviously I am going to be more frustrated with myself at that for the result,” Megill said. “But me and Peterson, I’m not thinking about that — just individually, what my performance was.”