After 11 years, Pereda gets 1st hit -- and then gets it back

MIAMI – Jhonny Pereda waited more than 11 years in professional baseball to record his first big league hit. Between that length of time and a near mishap in retrieving it, one couldn’t blame him for holding onto the ball while discussing Thursday night’s 10-4 Marlins loss to the Reds in 10 innings at loanDepot park.

With primary backstop Nick Fortes sidelined with a right quadriceps strain, the Marlins recalled Pereda from Triple-A Jacksonville on Wednesday for his third stint with the big league club this season.

After going hitless in his first five career MLB at-bats earlier in the year, Pereda wasted no time crossing the achievement off his list. He swung at right-hander Hunter Greene’s elevated 95.3 mph four-seamer in a 1-2 count and sent it to right field for a single to open the third.

Entering the series finale, Major League hitters had a .059 batting average and a .101 slugging percentage on plate appearances that ended on a pitch at least 4.14 feet off the ground (the height of this pitch) in 2024, with 21 total hits in 355 such at-bats.

“It is definitely a dream that I had since I was a little kid,” Pereda, who was signed by the Cubs as an international free agent in April 2013, said via interpreter Will Nadal. “And obviously, the long journey that I had through the Minor League system, it just felt good to achieve that goal, be able to get that first Major League hit, something that I'm really proud of.”

In an amusing sequence, Reds shortstop Elly De La Cruz threw the ball to a ballboy, who accidentally tossed it into the stands where it wound up in the possession of a young girl. Pereda’s teammates inside the dugout motioned about getting it back and sent over another ball that was exchanged for the milestone one.

“The first thought that came to my head was, ‘Am I going to be able to get it back?’” Pereda pondered. “But thankfully it came back to me.”

Witnessing someone collect his first hit never gets old. Manager Skip Schumaker, who played 11 seasons in the Majors, named his first dog, Dempster, after the pitcher he notched his first base hit off of: then-Cubs right-hander Ryan Dempster on Aug. 12, 2005.

“It's always exciting,” Schumaker said. “You'll always remember your first hit. … He's going to remember that. He got it off a really good pitcher, too. It wasn't just some like mop-up guy. He'll always remember that. I'm glad he got the ball back.

“And he'll have that and cherish that forever. He grinded through, probably makes it even more special. It's not like it was easy for him, and he caught a really good game, too. It's just unfortunate the way it ended [with a seven-run 10th].”

Pereda was then involved in a three-run fourth inning that snapped Greene’s streak of 24 consecutive scoreless innings. Jonah Bride singled, Otto Lopez walked and Kyle Stowers got hit by a pitch to load the bases for Derek Hill, who reached on an RBI fielder's choice. Vidal Bruján and Pereda followed with RBI singles to tie the game.

The All-Star Greene had given up two or fewer hits in four straight starts, with his .186 opponent average this season ranking as the third lowest in MLB (min. 90 IP). He also had allowed two total runs over his last six starts, going 3-1 with a 0.48 ERA (2 ER / 37 2/3 IP).

By collecting hits in each of his first two at-bats, Pereda (28 years, 112 days) became the oldest catcher in Marlins history to notch a multi-hit game in any of his first six games with the organization since Matt Treanor (three hits) did so at 28 years, 102 days old on June 13, 2004, at Detroit.

What made the evening even more special is that Pereda spent 2023 in the Reds’ organization, where he produced an .873 OPS at Triple-A Louisville. Though Pereda never faced Greene, he did catch a couple of his bullpen sessions. Pereda knew a lot of the players on the field for Cincinnati when he reached first base for the first time.

“The preparation is mostly the same, but my day to day I didn't really do anything different,” Pereda said. “Obviously, when I got that first hit there, I noticed that it came off of [Greene]. I was just kind of waiting for that ball, searching for the ball that he threw to me, because I've seen a lot of videos from him where he was throwing that type of pitch.”