One pitch separated the Freddy Peralta and the Brewers from a perfect game

As Freddy Peralta strolled through the Milwaukee Brewers clubhouse Monday a tick over three hours from first pitch later that evening, a teammate acknowledged his presence by shouting across the room.

"Faaaaaaaastball Frrrrrreddy!"

Peralta lived up to that billing – and then some – once he took the bump.

Peralta’s fastball was humming from the first batter of the night, making Jurickson Profar fall to the ground in a twisted heap on the second pitch of the game, and didn’t stop until he was removed from the game after tying his career high with 13 strikeouts in seven innings as he led the Brewers to a 12-1 win over the Colorado Rockies at American Family Field.

“Another great one,” Peralta said. “What was fun for me was I knew that I had a lot of strikeouts today but I had no idea about how many. When I finished, ‘Big Woo’ (Brandon Woodruff) came in and he told me, ‘You can only strike out 13?’ I didn’t know that. I had no idea. I wished I could get another one to break my own record, but it was fun.

“And everyone knows that I love the strikeouts.”

Here are three takeaways from the game.

Brewers retired 26 consecutive Rockies to finish the game

One hanging slider separated Peralta and the Brewers from a perfect game.

Peralta left a 2-2 breaking ball over the middle of the zone and elevated just enough for Rockies rookie shortstop Ezequiel Tovar to get his barrel on it and drive it over the fence in left field to put Colorado up, 1-0, two hitters into the game.

That was the last time the Rockies put a runner on base the rest of the way. Peralta retired the final 20 batters he faced, then Elvis Peguero and Andrew Chafin had three-up, three-down innings to close out the game with a combined 26 consecutive outs.

There isn’t going to be the type of fanfare associated with this game that comes with a no-hitter or perfect game, but there’s an argument to be made for it being one of the best-pitched games in Brewers history.

It was just the third time the Brewers only allowed one baserunner in a game, with the other two coming on May 26, 2019, in a game started by Woodruff and on September 11, 2021, when Corbin Burnes and Josh Hader threw a combined no-hitter.

Peralta, Peguero and Chafin also combined to throw only the fourth game in MLB history with 16 or more strikeouts and a maximum of one baserunner allowed.

“That was as well-pitched a game as we’ve had this year, for sure,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. “The attack of the strike zone I thought was just really, really good.”

Peralta, who only threw 94 pitches in his seven innings, may very well have been able to keep pitching and try to finish off a perfect game had it still been intact.

In the end, it was Peralta's 10th start of five or more innings and one or zero hits allowed. He's been a part of four combined one-hitters, as well.

The pitcher who has come ever so close to throwing a no-hitter time and time again for the Brewers was again one pitch away.

“I’m waiting for that moment,” Peralta said. “I don’t know when it’s going to happen but I’m waiting for that moment.”

How Freddy Peralta has turned his season around

The pattern became predictable earlier in the year for Peralta.

His stuff would be electric and his outings almost entirely positive, save for one bad inning. And more often than not, those single innings were enough to blow up entire starts.

That has kept Peralta from having the season he wanted in 2023 despite, since spring training opened this year, his arm looking as lively as it ever has.

Since the calendar turned to July, though, Peralta has put all the pieces together more often than before. He’s avoided the blow-up inning with more success and also delivered three double-digit strikeout starts, including a pair of 13-strikeout games over his last three starts.

“We talked about it after a number of starts,” Counsell said. “It’s like everything looks good. It looks right. He wasn’t getting the results he wanted. He was getting stuck in a game, was giving up just a homer in the wrong place unfortunately, but his stuff has been good all year. And when the offspeed stuff is competitive like it was tonight, it’s big problems for the hitter.”

Peralta is trusting the electricity of his pitches more now. It’s easy to see. He isn’t getting bogged down by a poorly located pitch or a bad result to a batter, instead locking in and letting his fastball ride or trusting his sweeping slider.

“I think it’s just the concentration and taking moments when I need it, breathing a little bit and controlling the game myself,” Peralta said of the difference from previous starts. “Without thinking about what’s going to happen and just living in the moment. Doing what I have to do pitch by pitch.”

Peralta’s fastball was as good as it’s ever been, generating 17 whiffs on 30 swings and topping out at 97.3 mph.

“It’s just electric,” Brewers shortstop Brice Turang said. “You can see it from the back. It’s just like, ‘Pow.’ It jumps out of his hand.”

The Rockies couldn’t touch it, but it was not on the heater alone that Peralta got 31 whiffs, which is the highest mark for any Brewers pitcher in a single game since Statcast began logging pitch tracking data in 2008.

Peralta also got six whiffs on eight swings with the curveball and five with the slider. He was most happy with his fourth offering postgame, though.

“(The stuff) has been good. The slider’s been good,” Peralta said. “But what I’m really happy about is my changeup has been working really good and I feel comfortable with that.”

Over three straight days, the Brewers have gotten dynamic outings from Corbin Burnes, Woodruff and now Peralta. It’s hard to put into words how dearly they have missed that exact recipe for success.

But with less than 50 games still to play and the Brewers clinging to first place in the NL Central Division, that trio could be the elixir that sends Milwaukee to the postseason.

Sal Frelick and Brice Turang get the Brewers offense rolling

Perhaps the Brewers bats just hit the snooze button one too many times Monday.

After going hitless through 3 ⅔ innings against Rockies starter Peter Lambert, they jolted awake with five consecutive two-out hits to score five runs.

Brice Turang began the sudden onslaught with a two-out, two-strike homer to right that put the Brewers up, 2-1.

Turang’s offense has surged during his second stint in the majors this year. He entered the day batting .406 (13 for 32) over his previous 11 games and had a .734 OPS since returning from a demotion to Class AAA Nashville in late June.

“Just catch it out in front a little more,” Turang said. “Just trying to win every pitch. Just trying to be ready to hit and give my team the best at-bat to win. And you just catch it out a little more in front and you get it.”

The Brewers tacked on three more runs before the inning was over to chase Lambert with four more two-out hits – a Brian Anderson triple, a Tyrone Taylor RBI single, a Christian Yelich single to the Bermuda Triangle in left and William Contreras' two-run single.

Then, it was another rookie’s time to shine.

Sal Frelick, who had already reached safely twice, delivered the most impressive at-bat of the night in the sixth. Facing Rockies reliever Connor Seabold, Frelick fought off three two-strike foul balls before punching a high-and-away fastball down the third-base line for a run-scoring double to push the Brewers’ lead to 7-1.

“I mean, (he had) a great fastball,” Frelick said. “He was spinning it and it said 94 (mph) but it was definitely playing up. The at-bat before, I kind of let the ump dictate the strike three call there on a borderline pitch, so I just wanted to make sure that didn’t happen again. Just making sure if I could put the ball in play I was going to, and I was able to sneak one down the line on the double.”

It was the embodiment of Frelick’s pesky, give-no-pitches-away approach at the plate.

Next time up, Frelick was a pest to Seabold in a different way, socking a pitch over the heart of the plate over the right-center fence for his third big-league homer.

Frelick has reached base 20 times in his first 39 plate appearances at home.

“Sal, his command of the strike zone, it ends up paying off,” Counsell said. “You don’t know when. His ability to make contact, it just pays off kind of over the big sample of things. And so the home run was great. The double was really cool too.”

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Freddy Peralta, Brewers allow one hit in 12-1 win over Rockies