Peralta looks to continue dominant run with ALCS Game 2 start
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ST. PETERSBURG -- In Game 2 of the American League Division Series, Freddy Peralta felt the energy and excitement inside Tropicana Field -- and it showed. The 30-year-old right-hander’s stuff looked electric as he tossed 4 2/3 innings of one-run ball and helped guide the Rays to a 5-2 win over the Yankees.
In Game 2 of the AL Championship Series, Peralta will again aim to feed off the atmosphere.
Tampa Bay has tabbed Peralta to start on Tuesday night vs. Cleveland, deploying the same duo for the first two games of the ALCS as it did in its ALDS sweep of New York. Drew Rasmussen (who started ALDS Game 1) took the mound for the opener vs. the Guardians on Monday.
Peralta always leans heavily on his fastball (which he threw 53% of the time during the regular season), but he did so even more in his first postseason start for the Rays. Of his 66 pitches thrown, 43 (65%) were heaters, and they averaged 96.8 mph, up from his season mark of 94.3.
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The opportunity to pitch in the playoffs again was something that appealed to Peralta after getting traded from the Mets to the Rays on Aug. 2. The Moca, Dominican Republic, native made nine postseason appearances for the Brewers from 2018-25, then knew he’d likely get opportunities to pitch for the AL East champions this October.
“Very special, because since I got here, I felt something I was looking for, which is the energy, the way that the boys play the game,” Peralta said during the ALDS. “The defense, they are amazing, the way they come into the field. The way they take their at-bats, too, it’s amazing. We just need to keep it that way.”
Peralta’s brief time in New York didn’t go as well as he had hoped. The righty had a 4.99 ERA through 22 starts, but Tampa Bay knew the talent was still there.
Since the trade, the Rays have won nine of the 11 games started by Peralta, who has allowed two or fewer earned runs in eight of those outings. He had a tremendous September, recording a 0.96 ERA in 28 innings over five starts last month.
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“I think what clicked is him coming over here and just flushing whatever had gone on and approaching it like a fresh start, a new start, a new season for him,” manager Kevin Cash said. “The fastball/changeup combination, the early-strike offspeed pitches he's able to throw and control in the count, and he has found ways to just put up a bunch of zeros and get deep in games.”
Cash said the Rays won’t be announcing the rest of their ALCS starters until the days before each game. That meant the trio of right-handers Nick Martinez and Griffin Jax and lefty Ian Seymour were available out of the bullpen for Game 1, if needed.
If Rasmussen and Peralta are both effective and can keep the bullpen fresh -- as they did in the ALDS -- then Martinez (the ALDS Game 3 starter), Seymour and Jax will be candidates to start later in the ALCS.