Tropicana Field (ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.) – Baseball has a way of manifesting these things. Freddy Peralta spent years as the face of the Brewers’ rotation, known as the ever-smiling electric right-hander with his patented high heat, beloved by Milwaukee fans.
On Monday night at Tropicana Field, Peralta will try to keep his former team from taking a 3-0 stranglehold on the World Series.
“I know,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said on Sunday, “Freddy is the right guy to pitch Game 3 with us in a two-game deficit.”
The Rays are backed into a corner, and they know it.
Peralta was acquired from the Mets at the trade deadline. The plan, however improbable it looked in August, was that he would be the arm to turn to when the season is on the line.
The Brewers lead the World Series, 2-0. A loss Monday would leave Tampa Bay needing to win four straight. It’s a daunting place to be, going up against a Brewers team that never quits, always grinds, and is playing its best baseball at the perfect time. The Rays have little margin remaining, and Peralta has become their best chance to create some.
Then there is the strangeness of it all, which no one in either clubhouse can ignore. The Brewers traded Peralta to the Mets in January. He expected it. His contract expires after this season, and he’s set to hit free agency. The Brewers preferred to get something back for Peralta before losing him for nothing.
It might sound cold, especially after the special reputation Peralta built across eight years with the Brewers. In small-market Milwaukee, though, the organization’s financial constraints are an open secret and all of this is understood. That doesn’t mean it’s easy. Peralta was not a rental in the eyes of the Brewers fan base. He was theirs, a homegrown success story who became a two-time All-Star, a Cy-Young caliber pitcher and a fixture in the rotation.
Now, he will stand on a mound 60 feet and six inches away from the hitters who were his friends and try to punch them out when it matters most.
“It is a little weird,” Peralta said on Saturday at American Family Field on facing the Brewers in the World Series. “I’ve been trying to focus on what I have to focus on, because even when I came out yesterday for practice, all the people, all the fans here were showing me some love, screaming my name. Also, when I went to the bullpen last night, they were telling me, ‘We still love you.’
“It’s amazing. I just have to be professional and keep everything in the right direction and know my goal.”
Freddy Peralta has already faced the Brewers once this year, back on July 20 when he was still with the Mets. (John Fisher/Getty Images)
Those Brewers hitters, former longtime teammates and friends Peralta would invite to his house for team dinners, know exactly what he throws. They have seen the ride on his fastball from their posts defending him in the infield. Brewers catcher William Contreras, the hottest hitter of this postseason, has caught Peralta’s signature pitch countless times. The Brewers front office, having signed and developed Peralta, knows his makeup inside and out.
Peralta, in turn, knows their swings, their habits, and where they like to annihilate the ball. Familiarity cuts both ways, and at this point, neither side can count on a surprise.
“I love that kid, man, I just do,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said of his former ace. “If you’re around him every day, like this kid is just joyful. It’s just a beautiful spirit that comes to do his job. He doesn’t look at himself as better than others. He’s just a great teammate. You can’t be around him for a while and not feel warm.”
Added Brewers reliever Aaron Ashby: “Everyone in our clubhouse was around him last year for the most part, and he’s like one of the best teammates you can have. He’s an unbelievable pitcher, but just the same, exact, awesome, fun dude every single day. He was a huge part of our organization’s success, and everyone over there in our clubhouse loves that dude. Excited for him and what’s to come for him. I hope we compete our butts off against him tomorrow.”
Emotionally, nobody should have expected this to be easy for Peralta, either.
People who know him best describe Peralta as wearing his heart on his sleeve, sporting the biggest smile and carrying positive energy in every room he walks into. He knows when to turn that off, of course.
On the mound, Peralta is competitive and cutthroat. The goal is to treat the Brewers as just another lineup. The reality is that it’s hard to forget a place that embraced you. Peralta believes he will be able to rise above the noise in his head, as well any difficult emotions that might surface.
“I want to make something clear,” Peralta said. “When I’m on the mound, I see everything like a competition. I know that they want to do damage against me, they want to score some runs. And I am trying to limit the damage, and I’m trying to get some outs. That’s the way that I see it. I know that I have a lot of friends, even on other teams before.
“I remember when I got traded here, I had to face the Mets. It was probably like two weeks later after I got traded, and it was the same. I know that sometimes you have people that you love on the other side, but you have to do what you have to do. Then everything takes care of itself.”
Freddy Peralta has allowed two earned runs in three postseason starts at Tropicana Field this month. (Mike Stobe/Getty Images)
If there is one thing the past few months suggests, it’s that Peralta can compartmentalize.
After struggling with the Mets this year, posting a 4.99 ERA and registering a -0.5 WAR over 22 starts, experiencing the lowest lows of his career, Peralta went 5-2 with a 3.25 ERA in 10 starts for the Rays and was named the American League Pitcher of the Month for September.
That turnaround was the result of the Rays paying close attention to Peralta’s needs. They knew the problem, understood how to deliver the news to Peralta so that he could make the necessary mechanical adjustments, and the club watched him go to work.
By his own account, things changed once he arrived in Tampa Bay.
“Everything changed when I got traded,” Peralta said earlier this month ahead of his first postseason start as a Tampa Bay Ray. “I’ve been treated here as a king, and I feel really good about it. They’re working me really well here.”
If you thought his second-half turnaround was brilliant, Peralta’s October results have been even more striking. He went 3-0 with a 0.75 ERA in three appearances against the Guardians, including two starts, and was named the ALCS MVP. He threw six scoreless innings in Game 2 and recorded two important outs in relief in Game 4. Not only that, but he leaned heavily on that four-seam fastball, the same pitch that made him a star in Milwaukee, and Cleveland was utterly befuddled by it.
Freddy Peralta celebrates after being named ALCS MVP in the Rays’ series win over the Guardians. (Mary DeCicco/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
That version of Peralta is the one the Rays need now, in his Monday night World Series start at Tropicana Field. Besides their four-run outburst in the first inning of Game 2, the Rays have not been able to get much going against Milwaukee’s pitching, and the silence in their clubhouse after Saturday’s loss said as much.
In a short series, one exceptional outing can swing everything, and Tampa Bay is asking the world from Peralta. He has to keep the Brewers’ offense in check, give the bullpen a chance to protect a lead and, above all, give his new home crowd something to believe in again.
For Peralta, all his years in Milwaukee, which meant so much to him and the people who watched him grow up in a Brewers uniform, will be in the background of every pitch.
“I didn’t know what to expect,” Peralta said. “I didn’t know what to expect coming into this. I know very well that the Milwaukee fan base is a great one, that they support their players every single step of the way through, but things are different now. I’m on a different team, and at the end of the day, you’re competing in the World Series.”