Like a true competitor, Wily Peralta wanted more on Sunday. Upon leaving the hill with seven scoreless innings and 100 pitches under his belt, the Tigers’ righty expertly ducked manager A.J. Hinch by entering the dugout from the opposite end, thus avoiding the “good game” handshake that would signal the end of his day.
His sneak didn’t work, as Hinch eventually caught him for congratulations and Derek Holland entered to pitch the eighth. But with a tear like Peralta has been on, no one would blame Hinch for being tempted to run him out again.
Given the recent injuries to their bullpen and back-to-back six-inning contributions from their relief corps entering Sunday, the Tigers really needed what Peralta brought to the bump during Detroit’s 2-0 win in the series finale against the Rays at Tropicana Field.
In crafting his sparkling outing, Peralta increased his dominant streak to eight consecutive starts of three or fewer earned runs allowed, a stretch that dates back to July 28. He hasn’t allowed a run since a two-out sacrifice fly against the Pirates on Sept. 7, a stretch spanning 16 1/3 frames.
Peralta allowed just three hits on Sunday — none of them in the same inning — and was efficient with his stuff, drawing 12 swings and misses while permitting only soft contact for the most part: Rays batters had an average exit velocity of just 79.9 mph against Peralta, well below Statcast’s hard-hit threshold of 95 mph.
With runs at a premium — after a scoreless stalemate through three innings, the Tigers held onto a slim lead after Eric Haase’s solo home run in the fourth and Dustin Garneau’s solo shot in the seventh — Peralta came up clutch each time he needed to.