Peralta rebounds from rough stretch, but loses pitchers' duel

MIAMI -- The month of May has been tough for Freddy Peralta. Entering his 10th start of the season on Wednesday at loanDepot park, the Brewers¡¯ Opening Day starter had allowed 11 earned runs over 16 innings in three May outings (6.19 ERA).

Against the Marlins, though, it was ¡°vintage Freddy.¡±

The righty allowed just one run on four hits over seven innings, effectively shutting down a Marlins offense that has been rebounding over the past week. On any other day, that would have been enough for a win.

But while Peralta was shoving, so was Miami¡¯s Jes¨²s Luzardo. The pair delivered a classic pitchers¡¯ duel that ended with the Marlins on top, 1-0, with Peralta¡¯s one run allowed being a leadoff homer to Jazz Chisholm Jr. on the fifth pitch he threw.

¡°Freddy was magnificent,¡± manager Pat Murphy said. ¡°[When] you give up one run in eight innings -- or in eight innings of pitching [as a team] -- you plan on winning the game. Their kid deserves a lot of credit. Man, that kid was great.¡±

Part of what worked so well for Peralta was his pitch mix. Pregame, Murphy emphasized that he wanted to see his ace use his fastball more -- and more effectively. The numbers won¡¯t show that he used it more than his last start (five runs allowed over five innings vs. the Astros on Friday), but both Murphy and Peralta acknowledged that Wednesday¡¯s outing saw a fastball that was vastly more productive.

¡°I thought, ¡®It's fastball Freddy,¡¯¡± Murphy said. ¡°It all plays off the fastball. He has to establish that. He can't throw five, six in a row and then throw one down the middle. But [if] he can use his fastball effectively and [is able] to locate it in the top half of the zone, it's really tough to hit. And then everything else works off of that. But he was magnificent.¡±

¡°No, even when I got the homer -- I knew that I gave up a homer because I was behind in the count; I started with 2-0,¡± Peralta said. ¡°But other than that, I was feeling great. ¡­ You never know what's gonna happen in a game, but I knew that I was feeling great for tonight. So I didn't pay a lot of attention to [the homer]. I just moved forward.¡±

Moving forward certainly paid off. Major Leaguers often discuss the necessity of ¡°flushing¡± the losses. They learn from them, but they¡¯re quick to carry on.

So Peralta learned from his outing against the Astros, studied up for his start vs. the Marlins and adjusted. Just look at the first inning: After allowing the homer to Chisholm on a fastball -- his fifth consecutive heater in the at-bat -- Peralta and backstop William Contreras settled in. And they turned up the heat.

Peralta struck out the next two batters he faced, starting a series of 10 consecutive batters retired before he allowed another hit. He struck out seven over his seven innings while getting 13 whiffs.

¡°[Peralta¡¯s] kind of unique, to where he can run his fastball up to like 96-97 mph, but then he's got some really slow offspeed -- so like, a really slow mid-70s curveball and a slower slider,¡± Marlins catcher Nick Fortes said. ¡°So it's kind of a big discrepancy in speeds. You've got to be ready for that hard fastball, but then he really slows you down with kind of a big curveball and a slider with a lot of horizontal movement. He's just good. He executes his fastball so he just keeps you off-balance.¡±

While it was vintage Peralta on the bump for Milwaukee, Luzardo was also lights-out. The Brewers struck out just four times against the southpaw, but they flied out or popped out a combined 15 times. Between the second and the eighth innings, Luzardo retired 17 consecutive batters. The only Brewer to get multiple hits was Gary S¨¢nchez, whose pair of singles bookended those 17 straight batters retired.

¡°We didn't get on [Luzardo] at all -- he was all over us all night, ahead in the count and he pitched great,¡± Murphy said. ¡°S¨¢nchez swung the bat great. But other than that, we couldn't really get anything going.

¡°Credit their guy. He was really, really good. I'm not going to be disappointed in our guys. ¡­ Great pitching beats good hitting, that's just the way it is. And that kid was great tonight. Let's give him the credit, [but] we competed and we did what we had to do to hang in there.¡±