CHICAGO -- Brewers coaches and front office officials have spent hours in meetings and Zoom sessions over recent days discussing how to get through this particularly burdensome stretch of the schedule without blowing out the pitching on the cusp of a pennant push. Nineteen games over 18 days can do that to a staff if you’re not careful.
So you can imagine everyone’s relief when the team’s No. 1 starter and MLB wins leader Freddy Peralta delivered just the sort of outing Milwaukee needed in what was supposed to be Game 1 of a doubleheader on Monday and the fourth game of that grueling stretch, a 7-0 win over the Cubs at Wrigley Field.
In the end, it was the day’s only game, but that didn’t diminish the importance of Peralta’s innings. Game 2 was postponed by rain, and the teams will try again to play a split doubleheader on Tuesday with the same scheduled first pitches of 1:20 p.m. CT and 7:05 p.m. CT.
Peralta averted disaster after briefly losing his command in the fourth and managed to keep the Cubs’ slumping bats at bay for six scoreless innings, and Brice Turang and Caleb Durbin each hit a solo homer, then drove home another run during a game-breaking, four-run eighth for a promising start to this five-game, four-day series between the National League Central’s top two teams.
Peralta’s key to delivering those important innings?
Not thinking too much about delivering those important innings.
“I feel like if I think too much about what I have to do, I put pressure on myself. Normally, I don’t work like that,” he said. “I have to be myself. Even in the morning before games, just be Freddy. I listen to music, play around, make some jokes and go out and compete without thinking to do so much.”
That’s a fairly accurate summation of the 2025 Brewers, who played music in the visitors’ clubhouse at Great American Ball Park on Sunday afternoon after snapping their franchise-record 14-game winning streak. Why sweat one loss when they’ve been so productive in a wider stretch? When they last left Wrigley Field on June 19, the Cubs were 5 1/2 games up in the division. But since then, Milwaukee is 39-10 and Chicago is 25-25, which has moved the Crew nine games ahead in the standings.
“I think me and [Jose] Quintana, we transmit that to the other guys,” Peralta said. “Of course, that helps us at the same time, too. We all help each other. We’re living in the moment, man.”
The Brewers emerged from the series opener in pretty good pitching shape thanks to Peralta, who improved to 15-5 with a 2.78 ERA. With five weeks remaining in the regular season, Peralta has a chance to be the Brewers’ fourth 20-game winner in franchise history, and the first since Teddy Higuera in 1986.
“I don’t think about that,” Peralta said. “I just think of getting the best of myself every day, every chance I have to be on the mound. And get the win for the team.”
It might have been a different outcome had Peralta not buckled down in the fourth, when he walked three straight hitters with one out in a 1-0 game. But he struck out top Cubs prospect Owen Caissie with a changeup -- a huge pitch for Peralta on Monday -- and then got Nico Hoerner to line out to end the threat. Those were the first two of eight in a row retired to finish Peralta’s 95-pitch outing.
“What he did was big for us,” Turang said. “He dominated. I’m happy for him, and then offensively, we’re putting the pieces together.”
It didn’t take much offense to win, as Peralta teamed with relievers Abner Uribe, Jared Koenig and Grant Anderson on Milwaukee’s 12th shutout victory. The Brewers might have stayed away from Koenig in a perfect world, but he was warming up while the hitters cobbled together one of the pesky scoring rallies that have been their trademark during this hot stretch -- four runs on three walks, two hits (including one on the infield), a run-scoring groundout and a run-scoring wild pitch.
“Our identity is definitely good at-bats, scrapping,” said Durbin, who grew up in greater Chicagoland and has hit two of his seven career homers at Wrigley Field. “It almost feels like the long ball is a bonus for us, but I don’t think that should be mistaken for us being incapable of it. …
“It feels like we’re sharks out there. We smell blood. Once we get runners on and start scraping those first runs across, we want that big inning.”