MILWAUKEE – Freddy Peralta is 24 years old. That’s easy to forget if he’s already thrown parts of four seasons in a Brewers uniform and still tried to prove this year that he was on the starting rotation.
Luis Urías is 23. He is a few seasons away from baseball as the 19th best prospect per MLB Pipeline, and had as miserable an introduction to the Brewers’ organization in 2020 as you could get. There was a broken hand, a case of COVID-19, and then a quiet few months in a utility position.
But there is a place for patience with players talented enough to make it to the Major Leagues when they are barely old enough to toast. The brewers’ patience with Peralta is paying off. They hope Monday’s 6-3 win over the Cubs at American Family Field marks the start of something similar for Urías.
“I think the Milwaukee Brewers will always have to commit to young players,” manager Craig Counsell said recently.
Peralta and Urías led the way to Milwaukee’s fifth win in the last six games, all against division rival Cubs and Cardinals. Peralta struckout 10 batters in six more electrical innings and took off as part of the Brewers’ six-run rally in the bottom of the sixth. Urías, coming off a 1-for-21 road trip, delivered the biggest hit of the inning – a pinch-hit three-run double that gave the Brewers the lead.
Two more batters looking for their strike kept the rally going, Jackie Bradley Jr. with an RBI triple and Keston Hiura with an RBI single, to win Peralta after the righthanded one held the Cubs on two hits and two runs in the fourth double-digit strikeout-performance of his burgeoning career.
Peralta had not given up a run in his first 10 innings of 2021 before Kris Bryant got the bat to a fastball and pulled it into the Brewers’ bullpen for a solo homerun in the fourth inning. How did Peralta react?
He retired the last nine batters he faced.
“I don’t know how he hit that field with great contact,” Peralta said of Bryant. “I got angry after that.”
It started with three consecutive strikeouts in the fourth. Joc Pederson watched a breaking ball. Javier Báez swung and missed so wildly on a breaking ball that Báez lost control of the bat and threw it up the mound, forcing Peralta to dance out of the way. Peralta made it three consecutive strikeouts when he got Jason Heyward to be a fan for a change under the zone.
Peralta said he likes the nickname “Fastball Freddy”, but it doesn’t fit anymore. It’s Four-Pitch Freddy, which helps explain how he just made two starts against the Cubs in a six-day period, holding them to one run on three hits in 11 innings. The first start was more dominant. Mondays were more like fastballs, with the breaking stuff reserved for big pitches.
“I think we’re overlooking how difficult it is to get big league hitters out with one pitch,” said Brewers pitching coach Chris Hook. “That is stressful. Freddy was able to do that, he’s able to get guys out with one throw, but I think he feels a freedom and I think that’s what you’re seeing now. ‘I have a slider. I have a change. I have a curveball. I have options. I never feel stuck and I have to make a perfect pitch. I think that’s what we’re excited to see about Freddy, the blossom of a pitcher that can throw four throws in each count. “
Peralta put it this way: “I feel like I have more space, more space where I can go. It is different.”
If the Brouwers could now help Urías to feel the same sense of freedom. They took away any doubts that he was the primary shortstop last week when they moved Orlando Arcia to Atlanta for two Major League-ready relievers. Even if it was good for Urías from a baseball perspective, he said he was sad to see a friend go.
He finished the road trip hit-free in his last 13 at-bats, coming in on Monday night with a score of .074 / .242 / .111 after posting a .602 OPS in 120 at bats last year.
“I mean, I think it’s a tough game, especially hitting,” said Urías. “You can go 1-for-20, then 10-for-20. That’s right, this game. And I’ve tried to stay positive, and told myself it’s 162 games, it’s been a long season. Obviously I’ll keep working every day, trying to show up and get the results I want. Today that gave me more confidence, getting that hit.
The brewers hope there is more.
“This is what organizations do. You have to make evaluations, and you have to believe in them, ”said Counsell last week. “That’s how this works.”