Crew gains in WC race, but Peralta headed to IL

MILWAUKEE -- The Brewers tried shorter outings for Freddy Peralta. They tried extra rest. Neither strategy got him through his latest start on Thursday night at American Family Field.

Peralta departed Game 2 of a doubleheader sweep of the Giants -- a 4-2 win in the nightcap -- on the arm of Milwaukee’s head athletic trainer after topping out at 88 mph against the opening hitter of the third inning. The team cited right shoulder fatigue and said Peralta is headed back to the injured list, where he spent all of June and July with a strained muscle behind the same shoulder.

He intends to pitch again in 2022.

“One hundred percent,” Peralta said.

Credit the five relievers who followed Peralta, beginning with Peter Strzelecki for six outs of emergency relief and ending with Taylor Rogers logging his 31st save, for helping the Brewers gain ground on both the Phillies (who lost Thursday) and Padres (who were idle) in the National League Wild Card standings. The day began with Corbin Burnes pitching eight brilliant innings before Devin Williams finished the Crew’s 2-1 win in Game 1.

“When you get eight innings in the first game of a doubleheader, we were all excited about it for sure,” manager Craig Counsell said of Burnes’ bounceback effort. “But in hindsight, it not only was a great performance, but it was the performance we had to have to get through the day.”

The nightcap was not what Peralta was hoping for, not after being pulled early from each of his two previous starts as a precaution and having this start pushed back by three days to allow for extra rest.

Peralta touched 94 mph in a 24-pitch first inning and 92 mph in the second after Milwaukee spotted Peralta a 3-0 lead. But after he walked Tommy LaStella leading off the third, Counsell visited the mound for a discussion that ended with Peralta leaving the field with head athletic trainer Scott Barringer.

“It's really just fatigue that's just not letting him get after it, so to speak,” Counsell said. “He's not having any pain, necessarily. But we're likely headed for an IL stint there because we need to give him rest, and then strengthen him and get him back out there.

“Nothing new happened today. Just, he went out there, we saw the velocity dip a little bit in the second inning and just didn't think he should be pitching like that.”

Said Peralta: “I think it was the right decision to come out of the game today. I didn’t want to come out, but I always say that.”

The Brewers’ cautious approach is understandable given Peralta’s importance to the organization -- he signed a five-year contract prior to the start of 2020 and he made the National League All-Star team in ‘21 -- and the current state of Milwaukee’s rotation.

Left-hander Eric Lauer exited his start against the Rockies just one day earlier with elbow discomfort and he underwent an MRI exam in Milwaukee on Thursday afternoon. Lauer said the early read was encouraging, but he’ll have to see the doctor again on Friday.

And left-hander Aaron Ashby, who signed his own five-year contract in July, is currently on the injured list for the second time this season, this time with a left shoulder issue. He hopes to throw off a mound for the first time on Saturday.

“I think right now is like ‘ragtime’ -- it’s when everybody’s body is taking a hit,” Lauer said on Thursday morning. “Everybody is hurting. Everybody is trying to focus most of their efforts on recovery. When you have something that nags for a while, you fight through as much as you can.

“Like, I’ve had elbow tightness all season. It’s not anything new. It just got to a point where it was more than I was able to overcome and I had to shut down. It was affecting my pitches. It was affecting the game. I wasn’t helping anybody.”

The Brewers already added right-handers Adrian Houser and Jason Alexander to the rotation to get through this current stretch of 18 games in 17 days. Next week brings some relief with a pair of off-days around a two-game series at St. Louis, but with Peralta down a minimum of 15 days, Milwaukee will have another spot to fill in the coming weeks.

“At some point, we'll have to answer those questions,” Counsell said. “The schedule next week helps us out to get a little farther along there. Probably next weekend is when we'll start to have to answer some questions about that.”

Given that Peralta has already missed a chunk of the season with a shoulder issue, and the Brewers have just 24 regular-season games remaining, is there worry that his season may be over?

“That's not our mindset right now and that's not Freddy's mindset right now,” Counsell said.

As for Peralta’s own level of concern, he said, “It’s not too high because I already talked to the trainers and they said there’s nothing really bad. There’s just a little fatigue, and a couple days of rest and that’s it. I’ll be back pitching this season.”