Confidence restored, Peralta delivers dazzler against former club

ST. PETERSBURG -- Sitting in the Rays’ dugout on Monday afternoon, Freddy Peralta made it clear he feels different than he did a month ago. It might have taken a midseason trade and a fresh start with Tampa Bay, but he believes he is past the issues that plagued him during his disappointing stint with the Mets.

Peralta backed up his words by shutting down his former team Tuesday night at Tropicana Field.

Peralta held the Mets to just one run and struck out seven without a walk over six impressive innings in the Rays’ 6-2 win. After allowing a leadoff homer to Francisco Lindor and two more hits in the first inning, Peralta retired 17 of the last 18 batters he faced, including each of the final 13.

“I have my confidence back,” Peralta said afterward. “I think that's a more important thing for a pitcher, when you trust in your stuff again.”

It was another huge step in the right direction for Peralta, who has won back-to-back starts for Tampa Bay. The veteran right-hander allowed only two hits over six scoreless innings in Detroit last Wednesday, and he was similarly effective and efficient against the Mets to even the series and improve the American League-leading Rays’ record to 83-55.

“His last two outings, he's been kind of the pitcher that he's always been, and we feel really good with him,” DH Yandy Díaz, who doubled and homered, said through interpreter Kevin Vera. “If he keeps doing what he's doing now, it's going to be a good rest of the season for him.”

Peralta admitted there was “a little bit” of emotion facing his former team, the one that dealt him to Tampa Bay at the Trade Deadline for three prospects. But he wouldn’t admit to feeling any additional motivation before the outing or satisfaction after the victory.

“I feel really happy right now, but I know it's a business. It's nothing to do with that,” Peralta said. “I just enjoyed the game today [the same] as any game, and [I’m] happy because we got the win.”

In keeping with the adjustments he has made since joining the Rays, Peralta leaned heavily on his signature fastball and changeup during his efficient 74-pitch outing. Half his pitches were four-seamers and nearly a third were changeups, and he sprinkled in a few curveballs and sweepers to keep the Mets off-balance while racking up 14 whiffs on 45 swings.

​But “Fastball Freddy” did most of his work with his heater, which averaged 95.2 mph -- up a full tick over his average velocity this season -- and topped out at 97.5 mph.

“Fastball is my best pitch, and I just feel like a superhero when it's working,” Peralta said. “Amazing.”

“He threw a heck of a ballgame,” added Rays manager Kevin Cash. “I thought he handled his emotions incredibly well and, after the first, really got in sync with the delivery and the strike throwing.”

The Peralta who scaled the mound against the Mets didn’t look much like the version who went 5-9 with a 4.99 ERA for New York to begin this season. Under pitching coach Kyle Snyder and bullpen coach Jorge Moncada, he has worked to regain the extension in his delivery that made him so productive as a member of the Brewers’ rotation.

Combine the successful mechanical tweaks he has made with the positive results he has recorded in his past few outings, and you can see why Peralta is once again brimming with confidence.

That’s even showing up in his strike-throwing. He hasn’t issued a walk in consecutive starts after walking at least one batter in a career-long streak of 25 straight games.

“I think he's pitching with a lot of conviction right now, and sometimes good results can get some more conviction,” Cash said. “I think that's what we're seeing. Once he settled in after the first inning, [when he] sprayed a couple pitches around [and had] some longer at-bats … he got committed to the strike zone with, I think, the best fastball that we've seen him have for us.”

Of course, Peralta’s reunion with the Mets started about as poorly as possible. He left a 3-2 curveball up in the zone to Lindor, who launched it into the right-field seats for a leadoff homer. Then came consecutive one-out singles by Bo Bichette and Carson Benge, extending what turned out to be a 25-pitch opening frame.

But Peralta said his stuff felt good from the start, and it looked that way the rest of the night. His pitch count, by inning, after the first: 13, eight, 13, seven, eight.

“As the game went on, he got better,” Lindor said. “Freddy is a tough pitcher. He's a really good pitcher.”