Peralta remains reliable arm for Crew despite up-and-down campaign

MILWAUKEE -- On a pitching staff decimated by injuries, Freddy Peralta has provided the Brewers with much-needed reliability.

The 28-year-old right-hander made his 19th start of the season on Friday when he faced the Nationals. It’s been an up-and-down campaign for Peralta, but his constant presence in the rotation is a relief for manager Pat Murphy, who has been forced to constantly juggle most of the rest of his pitching staff.

“It’s reliable,” Murphy said about Peralta once again taking his turn. “When he does have bumps in the road or struggles, everybody rallies around him because they love who the guy is and how he trains and goes about things. We’ve pieced it together and Freddy has not wavered. He just keeps taking the ball.”

In his final start heading into the All-Star break, Peralta gave up 10 hits, matching a season high, and four runs in five innings. He took the loss as the Nationals pulled off a 5-2 win in the opener of a three-game series. Peralta struck out six and didn’t walk a batter in the 92-pitch outing.

Reliability is nothing new for Peralta, who went 12-10 with a 3.88 ERA in a career-high 30 starts for the Brewers last season.

“For me, it’s really important. As a starting pitcher, that’s probably the principle goal to be able to pitch every five days and do what you need to do,” Peralta said. “Sometimes it’s not going to go your way, but you’ve got to be ready to go every five days and try to give five innings or more.”

Consistency, however, continues to be an issue this season for Peralta, who has seven quality starts and a 6-5 record.

Peralta, who has allowed 12 first-inning runs this season, once again got off to a bit of a shaky start against the Nationals, giving up a hit to leadoff batter CJ Abrams, who then stole second and scored on a double by Jesse Winker, who spent an injury-plagued season with the Brewers in 2023. The damage could have been worse, but right fielder Sal Frelick threw out Winker at the plate as he tried to score on Juan Yepez’s hit.

Peralta ran into trouble again in the fourth when he gave up run-scoring hits to Keibert Ruiz and Trey Lipscomb. The Nationals had four hits in the inning and sent seven batters to the plate.

Winker belted a solo homer off Peralta with two outs in the fifth.

“The only pitch that I feel really bad about was the first inning, the slider to Winker,” Peralta said. “The results just didn’t go my way tonight.”

Despite the outcome, Murphy said he saw plenty of positive aspects in Peralta’s outing, including not allowing a walk.

“They had some soft contact and give them some credit, they kept balls in play,” he said. “They had lost five in a row, so they were hungry to win. Their starter did a nice job to keep us at bay.

“But I thought there was a lot of good in Freddy’s outing. I don’t think it was a bad outing. It’s the same outing that could have been one run in six innings.”

After a strong finish to June, Peralta has been less than stellar in two July starts. He lasted just four innings in a July 6 outing against the Dodgers in Los Angeles, giving up three runs and four hits while throwing 104 pitches.

“In general, in all the games this first half, there’s some good. Other ones, I could do better,” Peralta said. “In general, I know I’m way better than what I have done so far. I think it’s just trying to put everything together. I feel great. That’s important for me. I’m healthy. I know that I can just change at some point. Like last year, the second half was crazy. Really good. I’m just trying to clear my mind and move forward. Last year, I was feeling good but for some reason I didn’t have a good first half. Right now, this [season] is way better than last year.”

On Friday, Peralta was outdueled by the Nationals’ Jackson Rutledge, who made his first big league start this season. Rutledge pitched 4 2/3 innings, giving up two runs and just three hits. The Brewers loaded the bases against Rutledge in the fifth, but Robert Garcia came on to strike out Adames to end the threat.

The Brewers have lost six of their last eight games.

“We just have to move forward and try to win tomorrow,” Peralta said.