Lefty Peters scorches Florida State League

The Marlins opted to have Dillon Peters skip a level and start his 2016 season in the Florida State League. That's proven to be a wise move.

"It's a fun league to pitch in," the Marlins' No. 15 prospect said. "It's definitely a pitchers' league, but I'm just trying to stay within myself. With pitching, there's definitely a need for consistency with it. So I'm just trying to stay as consistent as I could all year, not living too high, not living too low and just grinding out the rest of the season and just give wins to this baseball club as we compete for making the playoffs."

Peters yielded three hits over six innings in Class A Advanced Jupiter's 2-0 shutout of St. Lucie on Wednesday at Roger Dean Stadium. He struck out four and walked two for his fifth straight victory, only giving up two runs over 29 2/3 innings over that span. He's racked up 11 wins this season, tying for the circuit lead with Bradenton's Austin Coley and Daytona's Tejay Antone.

"My command was a little above average," Peters said. "There were a lot more strikes than what 'above average' looks like, but they were just chasing some balls that were up in the zone. I was getting foul balls, but I really wasn't living down at the knees like I tried to do all season."

The 23-year-old southpaw escaped his biggest threat of the game in the second inning.

After a leadoff double by Kevin Taylor and a subsequent walk by Michael Katz, Mets' No. 21 prospect Luis Guillorme laid down a sacrifice bunt to put both runners in scoring position.

"I was just thinking damage control at that point," Peters said. "Just to keep the ball down and get out of the inning as quickly as I can, get back to the dugout and see if we can get some runs back if I had to give up any."

Peters (11-6) got New York's No. 18 prospect Jhoan Urena to fly out to shallow center before striking out John Mora to keep the game scoreless.

The 2014 10th-rounder breezed through rest of his outing, but only had one 1-2-3 inning, in the fourth.

"They are a challenging baseball club," Peters said. "They have been all year and their record shows it. I was basically just trying to get early outs, but some hitters were giving me a tough time. Later in the game, I started being a little more efficient with all three pitches and then I started to cruise. But the first half of the game, they were giving me fits."

The scoreless outing lowered his ERA to 2.46, good for sixth in the Florida State League. The University of Texas product had allowed just two earned runs over his last 33 1/3 innings. 

"I think I've just been staying within my routine and being on the same page with [catcher] Chris Hoo," Peters said. "Every game, we go over the lineup to make sure we are on the same page. I rarely shake him off unless I really do not like his call for that specific page. He really knows what he's doing and I give him a lot of credit behind the plate. I'm basically just taking every day one day at a time and just sticking to it."

Andy Beltre struck out two in the seventh before Esmerling De La Rosa went the final two frames. The righty yielded one hit and one walk while fanning two for his eighth save of the season.