Peralta helps cause with patient at-bat

MILWAUKEE -- Wily Peralta must have been feeling spry in his return from the All-Star break.

The burly pitcher helped manufacture a three-run third inning in Monday's 5-2 win thanks to his 10-pitch at-bat against tough Reds starter Mat Latos. Peralta fouled off four consecutive full-count pitches before bouncing a single up the middle.

"I don't know what was going through my mind," Latos said of the at-bat. "He swings the bat pretty good for a pitcher. [If you] execute pitches down and away, they don't necessarily hurt you as bad."

It was only Peralta's third hit after 34 at-bats this season.

Which was more impressive to Peralta, his seven innings of one-run ball or that 10-pitch at-bat?

"The seven innings, but it's great I had a 10-pitch at-bat," Peralta said, smiling. "I finally got a hit. It's great."

Peralta moved to second on a Carlos Gomez single, then surprised a stadium full of fans by taking third on Scooter Gennett's fly ball to Billy Hamilton in medium center field. An on-target throw might have retired Peralta, who made a late slide and was safe.

"The slide scared me a little bit. He slid late, and the foot went over the bag. I'm probably glad it went over the bag instead of catching on the bag," said manager Ron Roenicke. "But yeah, I like it. He's athletic. All of our starters are pretty athletic. You just hope it comes out clean at the end."

Peralta later scored when Ryan Braun hit a line drive over the head of left fielder Chris Heisey.

"You saw when we had [Zack] Greinke here and [Shaun] Marcum here, [Yovani Gallardo], we've seen what they can do over the years -- you can win a lot of ballgames when you are a good athlete," Roenicke said. "Those guys really help their cause when they can do little things right."