Peralta’s Postseason Run Ends In Painful World Series Failure

New York Mets fans saw something very familiar in Game 3 of the World Series on Monday night, as Tampa Bay Rays starter Freddy Peralta turned back the clock and became “Five-Inning Freddy” as the Milwaukee Brewers routed the  Rays, 10-1, to take a commanding 3-0 lead in the October Classic. 

It was a classic Peralta performance by Mets standards, which wasn’t good for the Rays. Technically, Peralta couldn’t even manage the whole five-inning thing, as Milwaukee rallied to score eight runs with two outs in the fifth inning. 

The Brewers took the early lead and drove up Peralta’s pitch count in the process, starting with a two-rally in the third on a single by Jackson Chourio and a walk to Jake Bauers, followed by a pair of RBI singles from Christian Yelich and William Contreras. 

That set the stage for the disaster that was the fifth inning. Chourio singled again, this time with one out, and Yelich walked after a second out. That was when Yelich beat the throw to second on an attempted forceout by third baseman Junior Caminero, and that ended Peralta’s night as Rays manager Kevin Cash went to the pen for Cam Booser. 

The move also likely ended the Rays’ season. Booser gave up eight straight hits, and by the time the carnage was over Milwaukee had a 10-0 lead. 

Peralta’s final line had him going 4-2/3 as he gave up five runs on seven hits to go with three walks and four strikeouts. The ugly line mirrored many of Peralta’s performances for the Mets, as he wound up throwing 87 pitches. 

The line doesn’t ruin Peralta’s brilliant second half, and of course it’s theoretically possible that he could come back to pitch again in the World Series if the Rays can rally and somehow keep the contest going. 

But it could give pause to teams looking at Peralta in free agency and thinking he’s “fixed." That may force the right-hander back into some kind of a bridge contract with the Rays, who were able to turn him around after his miserable first half in New York. 

For Mets fans, the postseason Peralta experience as a whole was yet another painful reminder of what might have been. The right-hander still has a bright future in Tampa Bay if he sticks around and continues to work on the fixes the Rays helped him implement, while the Mets remain stuck in a loop as they continue to look for a veteran ace to go with their corps of young starters.