Freddy Peralta will take the ball with Tampa Bay facing its first real ledge of this World Series, and the setting could not carry much more history. The Rays trail Milwaukee 2-0 heading into Monday night’s Game 3, with Peralta asked to halt the Brewers’ momentum against the club that made him a major league mainstay.
Game 3 is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET on FOX, FOX Deportes and FOX One. Peralta’s return to the spotlight comes after a warm, unusual welcome in Milwaukee before the opener, when the sold-out American Family Field crowd applauded the visiting right-hander during a pregame video.
Quick facts
- The Brewers lead the World Series two games to none entering Game 3.
- Peralta joined the Rays from the Mets at the Aug. 3 Trade Deadline in a deal for three prospects.
- In his last 10 appearances, including three postseason starts and one relief outing, Peralta is 7-0 with a 0.89 ERA.
- He posted a 7.34 ERA across nine Mets starts before the Deadline.
- Milwaukee’s Sal Frelick and manager Pat Murphy both described Peralta as a central figure in the Brewers’ clubhouse culture.
When a scoreboard montage showed Peralta handling Cleveland in the American League Championship Series, a camera found him along the foul line. He smiled broadly as fans recognized a pitcher who had become an adopted Milwaukee son over more than a decade in the organization.
That affection stops at the lines for this series. Brewers outfielder Sal Frelick said Peralta had been the club’s ace and a major piece of the city’s baseball identity, even if teammates understood that he would eventually pitch elsewhere.
Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy spoke in the same warm terms, calling Peralta a player whose joy shows up every day at the ballpark. The Brewers want him beaten now, but there is no dispute about the regard he earned in their room.
The road to this start took a hard turn in New York. After joining the Mets in the offseason, Peralta endured a run of uneven starts that became more troubling as he searched for the form that had produced two All-Star selections and a fifth-place National League Cy Young finish in 2025.
He surrendered six earned runs against St. Louis on June 9. Philadelphia then scored a career-high 10 runs against him 11 days later, and Toronto added five more in another loss less than two weeks after that.
After the Blue Jays game, Peralta took time before speaking to reporters and acknowledged that he was not feeling right. He later said his confidence had begun to slip, before the move to Tampa Bay changed the direction of his season.
The Rays saw more than the 7.34 ERA he carried through nine starts before the Deadline. Tampa Bay believed in the larger body of work, and the Mets ultimately sent him south in exchange for three prospects.
Former Rays and Brewers infielder Willy Adames alerted Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash after the trade, telling him the club was acquiring one of the game’s best. Peralta’s reputation has long extended beyond his stuff; teammates view him as a connector in a clubhouse.
In Tampa Bay, Peralta and pitching coach Kyle Snyder went to work on a substantial reset. He shifted to the third-base side of the rubber, abandoned the windup, lifted his release point and focused on driving farther down the mound to create more extension and perceived velocity.
His pitch plan changed, too. Peralta used his changeup more often, cut back on breaking balls and worked his fastball more aggressively at the top of the strike zone. Mets personnel maintained that several of those adjustments had also been discussed in New York, but the Rays’ approach clicked with the pitcher.
By his outing against Baltimore two weeks after the Deadline, Peralta felt enough of his old rhythm returning to become a key arm in Tampa Bay’s pennant chase. The results since then have been dominant, and now they have brought him to the largest assignment of his career.
There has been time for reunions around the World Series, with Peralta catching up with former teammates and old friends. Brandon Woodruff, who first met Peralta in 2016 when the right-hander was a lower-level Brewers prospect, considered sending him a message before the series.
Woodruff reached the majors late in 2017, with Peralta arriving early the next season. They grew through the rotation and bullpen together, sharing the difficult early years and watching each other navigate successes and setbacks.
Woodruff decided against the text. He said he would gladly embrace Peralta if they crossed paths on the field, but the competitive line is clear now: Milwaukee is trying to win a championship, and Peralta is the Ray standing in its way Monday night.
