MILWAUKEE – Freddy Peralta is 24 years old. It’s easy to forget when he already released parts of four seasons in a Brewers uniform and came this year still trying to prove that he belongs to the starting rotation.
Luis Urías is 23 years old. He was eliminated for a few seasons as the 19th best baseball prospect for the MLB Pipeline and had an equally miserable introduction to the Brewers in 2020, as one might get. It was a broken hand, a case of COVID-19, then a few quiet months in the role of utility.
But there is a place for patience with players talented enough to reach the major leagues when they are barely old enough to pick up a toast. The patience of the beer producers with Peralta paid off. They hope that Monday’s 6-3 victory over the Cubs at American Family Field proves the beginning of something similar for Urías.
“I think the Milwaukee Brewers will always have to hire young players,” manager Craig Counsell said the other day.
Peralta and Urías led the way to Milwaukee’s fifth win in the last six games, all against division rivals Cubs and Cardinals. Peralta broke out 10 times in six more innings and left as part of the Brewers’ six-run rally at the bottom of the sixth. Urías, who came out on a 1-for-21 trip, provided the biggest success of the half – a three-stage double that gave the Brewers the lead.
Two other attacking hitters held the rally, Jackie Bradley Jr. with an RBI triple and Keston Hiura with an RBI single, to win Peralta after the right held the Cubs in a two-hit, two-run race. the fourth double-digit performance of his upcoming career.
Peralta did not allow a run in his first 10 innings in 2021, before Kris Bryant took the bat’s barrel to a fast ball and pulled it into the Brewers bullpen for a lone run that led to the fourth inning. How did Peralta respond?
He withdrew the last nine beatings he faced.
“I don’t know how he hit that pitch with great contact,” Peralta said of Bryant. “I got annoyed after that.”
He started with three straight shots in the fourth. Pederson game looks at a ball that breaks. Javier Báez spun and missed a wild ball so that Báez lost control of the bat and threw it into the mound, forcing Peralta to dance out of the way. Peralta made three straight shots when he made Jason Heyward join a change under the area.
Peralta said she likes the pseudonym “Fastball Freddy”, but it doesn’t fit anymore. It’s Freddy’s Four-Pitch, which helps explain how he just made two starts against the Cubs in a six-day period and held them to a single run in three shots in 11 innings. The first start was more dominant. On Monday, there were several fast balls, the last things being reserved for the big places.
“I think it’s hard to get the big players out of the league with one step,” said Chris Hook, the Brewers’ pitching coach. “It’s stressful. Freddy has managed to do that, he is able to bring out the boys in one tone, but I think there is a freedom he feels and I think that’s what you see now. – I have a slider. I have a change. I have a curved ball. I have options. I never feel stuck and I have to make a perfect pitch. ‘I think that’s what we love to see about Freddy, it’s that flower of a pitcher that can throw four tones in any number. ”
Peralta said: “I feel like I have more space, more space where I can go. Is different.”
Now, if the Brewers could help Uriah feel the same sense of freedom. They removed any doubt that he is the main shortstop last week, when they traded Orlando Arcia to Atlanta for two relays ready for the Major League. Even though it was good for Urías from a baseball perspective, he said it was sad to see a friend leave.
He finished the trip without a hitch in his last 13 bat-bats and entered the .074 / .242 / .111 cut on Monday night after posting a .602 OPS in 120 plate appearances last year.
“I mean, I think it’s a tough game, especially hitting,” Urías said. “You can go 1 to 20 and then you can go 10 to 20. That’s right, this game. And I’ve tried to stay positive, telling myself there are 162 games, it’s a long season. Obviously, I’ll continue to work in every day, trying to show up and get the results I want. Today, this guy gave me more confidence, getting that hit. It was a fun game. “
Brewers hope there will be more.
“That’s what organizations do. You have to make assessments and you have to believe in them, “Counsell said last week. “That’s how it works.”