Detroit Tigers starter Wily Peralta remembers meeting Freddy Peralta in spring training with the Milwaukee Brewers.
They aren’t related, but the pair of right-handed pitchers formed a friendship because of their last names. The Brewers acquired Freddy Peralta in December 2015 from the Seattle Mariners, but he didn’t make his MLB debut until 2018. Wily Peralta, meanwhile, pitched for Milwaukee from 2012-17. Both players are represented by the same agency: REP1 Baseball.
“I know him very well,” Wily Peralta said Wednesday, after Tuesday’s 1-0 win over the Brewers in the 11th inning on Derek Hill’s walk-off double. “I would joke with him when I was there. He was a young kid. I would say, ‘There’s not many Peraltas in baseball, especially on the Brewers, so you better represent the name.'”
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On Tuesday, Wily Peralta squared off against Freddy Peralta at Comerica Park.
Each pitcher deliveredsix scoreless innings. Wily Peralta allowed just two hits and two walks, striking out five and throwing 53 of 85 pitches for strikes. He retired the final nine batters he faced, including strikeouts of Christian Yelich (splitter) and Avisail Garcia (fastball) to conclude his strong outing.
“There’s a little bit of extra motivation when you face your old team,” Peralta said.
Tigers manager AJ Hinch added: “I think he needed get his body moving. We talked about a couple of different pitchers that are not moving as aggressively or moving down the hill. His delivery had a ton of more energy in it. … That’s as good as he’s thrown this season against one of the better teams.”
Peralta’s fastball averaged 94.6 mph, up from his 93.6 mph season average. He maxed out at 96.4 mph. He also averaged 84.9 mph with his slider, a sizable uptick from his yearly average of 82.2 mph. His goal is to create a greater speed separation between his slider and splitter, which averages 81.3 mph.
Throwing harder helped Peralta produce six swings and misses: two with his four-seam fastball, one with his two-seam fastball, one with his slider and two with his splitter.
“My slider in the past used to be like 84-88 (mph),” Peralta, 32, said. “Earlier this year, I’ve been throwing it like 80-83 (mph). I want to get back to my old slider. It’s the same grip, but right now I’m more on top of the ball.
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Peralta has pitched 16 games (15 starts) for the Tigers this season, posting a 3.32 ERA, 29 walks and 49 strikeouts over 76 innings. Before 2021, the right-hander hadn’t started a game in the big leagues since 2017 with the Brewers. (The Kansas City Royals stuck Peralta in the bullpen in 2018 and 2019. He didn’t pitch competitively in 2020.)
But Peralta — who signed a minor-league contract with the Tigers in February and opened the campaign in Triple-A Toledo — has quietly evolved into one of the team’s best starting pitchers, alongside rookies Casey Mize and Tarik Skubal.
“He’s someone who is clearly establishing himself as somebody that good teams will want,” Hinch said. “Coming into the season, he wasn’t a guy that necessarily was projected to be this starter. He has stated his case pretty firmly.”
Getting to the finish line is Peralta’s top priority, which should set him up for an opportunity in 2022. He has roughly three starts remaining before he allows himself to focus on what comes next in his nine-year MLB career — whether that’s with the Tigers or a different team.
“I’m just trying to do the best that I can every single outing,” Peralta said. “Obviously, I want to have a job for next year. But right now, I’m not even thinking about it. I’m trying to finish strong, and in the offseason, I hope some teams will call.”
Evan Petzold is a sports reporter at the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold. Read more on the Detroit Tigers and sign up for our Tigers newsletter.