Peralta back, hits blast in D-backs' sim game

PHOENIX -- David Peralta hates days off, so one can only imagine how much the D-backs outfielder wanted to be out on the field when Summer Camp opened last Friday.

Peralta, though, had felt ill a little more than a week ago and showed symptoms that he said were consistent with COVID-19. He tested negative for the virus, but had to have a total of four negative tests before he was finally allowed to join his teammates Monday.

• D-backs open 2020 season in San Diego

“I’m happy to be back with the guys and do what I love to do,” Peralta said. “I needed four negatives because of the symptoms that I had. That’s fine, whatever you guys need to do for me to be cleared and be able to practice and be with my teammates. I’ll do whatever it takes. That makes me feel good, too, to know that I’m negative and don’t have anything.”

Peralta was in the lineup for the D-backs' first intrasquad game of the spring and went 2-for-3 with a home run.

“I think his year is going to be fantastic,” D-backs manager Torey Lovullo said of Peralta. “I never undersell David’s ability to put the barrel on the baseball. He basically jumps into some live situations and [seeing] his first at-bats, it looks like he has not missed a beat.”

Peralta, though, was not ready to declare himself ready for the July 24 opener against the Padres just yet.

“It’s hard to say because I’m taking it day by day,” he said. “Like today was my first day, I hit a couple of balls really well. I went deep, first day, but that doesn’t mean that I’m ready.”

Calhoun tests positive

Lovullo said that outfielder Kole Calhoun has not participated in Summer Camp yet because he tested positive for COVID-19.

Calhoun, though, was asymptomatic and has been feeling fine.

“I feel strongly that Kole is going to be OK and he’s going to join us and not skip a beat,” Lovullo said.

Marte sharp

Coming off a banner 2019 season, Ketel Marte homered in his first Spring Training at-bat in February and he started off Summer Camp in similar fashion.

Marte was 2-for-2 on Monday against right-hander Zac Gallen with a double and a home run.

Speaking of Gallen ...

Gallen got in around 50 pitches in the intrasquad game, allowing five runs on four hits.

“I felt good,” Gallen said. “The body feels like, I think, where I would be any other time I go three innings, 50 pitches. Everything feels good, action on the stuff feels good.”

Especially with the way things are now, the most important thing for a pitcher like Gallen is getting his pitch count up and a feel for live game action more than actual results. So the fact that Gallen’s fastball had good life and his changeup was sharp were the most important things.

“I thought there was some quality pitches that he threw, and then I thought there were some mistakes and you could see our hitters were ready to jump on those mistakes,” Lovullo said. “All and all, he got up into the 50-[pitch] range, which we wanted. We expect some hiccups, but when you stop and evaluate the stuff, I thought it was quality.”

Biggest adjustment

Peralta takes pride in being on the top step of the dugout and high-fiving a teammate after a home run. When teammates have tried to cut in front of him to do it, they hear about it.

But with the new health protocols in place, high-fiving and hugging is prohibited. That’s going to be a real adjustment for Peralta.

“It’s going to be tough,” he said. “That’s what we do. We celebrate when we do something good, we celebrate when we win. At the same time, we have to follow the rules. I know it’s going to be hard in the beginning, but the more games we play, I guess we’re going to get used to it. Hopefully that’s the case. We’ll see what’s going to happen. We’ll try not to do that.”