ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 Depending on how you look at it, the randomness of baseball can be hilarious or heartbreaking.<\/p>\n
For instance, the direction of a ball hit off a catwalk can be the difference between a home run and an out \u2014 a seemingly rare occurrence that has somehow occurred twice in the divisional round of the postseason. Try explaining that one to Babe Ruth.<\/p>\n
An efficient outing from right-hander Freddy Peralta might have also seemed like a rare occurrence earlier this season because, well, it was. But the way Peralta pitched Monday night in the Tampa Bay Rays\u2019 Game 2 ALDS win over the Yankees wasn\u2019t out of the ordinary.\u00a0This was who Peralta was before the Milwaukee Brewers traded him to the Mets, and this is who he has been since the Mets traded him to the Tampa Bay Rays for a package of three prospects at the deadline in August.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was born to be a winner, like I\u2019ve said before,\u201d Peralta told the Daily News following the 5-2 win at Tropicana Field. \u201cI don\u2019t care what happens. I know I\u2019ve got to take a punch sometimes, and I\u2019ve just got to work to stand back up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Peralta was knocked down in New York, but he\u2019s now standing tall in Tampa.\u00a0Since leaving the Mets, he\u2019s adjusted his arm slot, added a slide step and added a few velos to his fastball. He faced the minimum over the first three innings before Ben Rice took him deep to lead off the fourth. With a rested bullpen and the game tied 1-1, the Rays played it conservatively by removing him before facing the top of the order a third time.<\/p>\n
Peralta held the Yankees to only one earned run on three hits, walking one and striking out three over 4 2\/3 innings. He had only thrown 66 pitches, and his velocity was still up around 97 MPH, but his command was beginning to waver.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a tough decision. I felt like the changeup started just to work off the edge enough where he wasn\u2019t able to get it in the zone,\u201d said Rays manager Kevin Cash. \u201cBut early on, I mean, it was a dominant fastball, dominant changeup. It\u2019s tough to nitpick anybody that goes through that lineup and gives up a solo homer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Peralta protested when Cash came out to relieve him. He wanted to at least finish out the fifth, and felt he could get out of the jam. But thanks Drew Rasmussen\u2019s eight-inning, one-run performance in Game 1 gave Tampa Bay the luxury of bringing in a left-hander to play the matchups with left-handed hitters at the top of the order.<\/p>\n
He set the tone for Tampa, going as far as he needed to give the Rays a chance at a 2-0 series lead. Plus, the Yankees were already imploding with utterly inept defense.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always want to keep the ball,\u201d Peralta said. \u201cI just wanted to be my best from the first pitch to whenever Cash comes to take me out of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
For once, Peralta was on the other side of a defenseless slopfest. After all, the Mets committed six errors in a game back in June\u2014a game that ultimately led to the demise of manager Carlos Mendoza and cemented Peralta\u2019s status as a trade candidate.<\/p>\n
It was becoming tedious to watch Peralta\u2019s outings while in a Mets uniform, with the way he nibbled around the corners and got beat. Often, Peralta needed 20-30 pitches to make it through the first inning. Naturally, it affected his confidence.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not gonna lie, yes, it did,\u201d he said. \u201cI knew that I was able to come back because I was in situations like this before.\u201d<\/p>\n
Seeing 4 2\/3 innings in the box score probably had fans around Flushing nodding, thinking they had already seen this episode. This one might have a different ending,\u00a0however.<\/p>\n
The very same Mets fans who celebrated his arrival couldn\u2019t wait to send him packing. It undoubtedly hurts to see him succeed for another team, but if Peralta helps that team eliminate the Yankees from the postseason, there will undoubtedly be some consolation.<\/p>\n
The Mets will have to contend with the blemish of breaking a frontline starter if Peralta gets his redemption arc, especially if Peralta continues to pitch the Rays deeper into October. He finished the season with an ERA under 1.00 over his final six starts, and his stuff played even better against the Yankees. A sellout crowd of 40,226 gave him extra adrenaline. Peralta isn\u2019t sure whether the extra velocity came from the crowd, but it definitely didn\u2019t hurt.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a crowd of mostly Rays fans in the series, a departure from what it\u2019s usually like when the Yankees are in town.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s now gone four or more innings while limiting the opposition to three or fewer runs in his last five postseason starts, going back to the infamous NL Wild Card Series against the Mets in 2024. It\u2019s the longest active streak in baseball. Between his past and his present, this turnaround doesn\u2019t feel random \u2014 it\u2019s real.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy confidence is as high as it can get,\u201d he said. \u201cA 10 out of 10.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 Depending on how you look at it, the randomness of baseball can be hilarious…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419970,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[164810,165916,23181,202,204,203,199,201,200,77437],"class_list":["post-419969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-alds","tag-freddy-peralya","tag-rays","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-yankees"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}