MILWAUKEE -- In single seasons over the last 125 years for which we have the data, only 10 pitchers have strung together at least five consecutive scoreless starts of at least five innings. Bob Gibson is one of them. So are Don Drysdale, Orel Hershiser and Zack Greinke. D-backs ace Zac Gallen was the last to do it, in 2022.
Now Freddy Peralta is one of them, too.
Just a few days after he was named the National League’s Pitcher of the Month for August, Peralta stretched his streak of stingy outings into September by dealing five more scoreless innings in the Brewers’ 2-0 loss to the Phillies at American Family Field.
Philadelphia took the series between the NL’s top two teams, two games to one, but you can’t exactly blame Peralta, whose scoreless streak stands at 29 innings and counting, the longest in the Majors this season, according to Elias. If there was any doubt that Peralta would start Game 1 of a postseason series for the Brewers, the 29-year-old has spent the past month-plus erasing it.
“It’s just learning the process, learning [from] all the mistakes I have made before and just trusting more in myself and getting better. I have more stuff to work with.
“It’s part of the journey. I think I can be better than that, and that’s what I’m trying to do right now.”
Peralta struck out eight and worked around three walks and two hits in a game that remained scoreless until the seventh, when Phillies third baseman Alec Bohm tripled past diving Brewers right fielder Isaac Collins. He scored when Trea Turner went down to get a two-out, 0-2 splitter from Tobias Myers and lined it over the shortstop for a single.
Brewers hitters threatened often, putting runners in scoring position against Phillies starter Ranger Suárez in the second, third, fourth and sixth innings and in the eighth against lefty reliever Matt Strahm, but stranding them there each time -- including at third base three times. That spoiled another gem from Peralta, who has not surrendered a run since his next-to-last inning of an Aug. 5 start against the Braves in Atlanta.
In the five starts since then, Peralta has allowed no runs on nine hits with 35 strikeouts in 28 innings. He’s the first true starting pitcher in Brewers history to author five consecutive scoreless starts, and that includes streaks spanning seasons. (“True” starter, because Jared Koenig made six straight scoreless starts as an opener last season.) In Brewers history, only Teddy Higuera (32 innings for 1987’s “Team Streak”) has had a longer stretch of scoreless innings.
Among pitchers born in the Dominican Republic, Peralta’s 29 innings are tied for the sixth-longest single-season scoreless streak in Major League history, according to Elias. Hall of Famer Pedro Martínez tops that list with his 35-inning scoreless streak for the Red Sox in 2002. The last Dominican-born pitcher with a scoreless streak as long as Peralta’s was Bartolo Colon for the Mets in 2015.
And, the last pitcher with more than 29 straight scoreless innings in a single season was, coincidentally, Suárez, who had a run of 32 last year for the Phillies.
"He really keeps you off balance,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “You've got to be very patient because he's right on the edges a lot, and I thought we did a good job with that."
If there’s room to improve, that’s it: Pitch count efficiency, a common critique of Peralta over the years. But even when he tried to induce early contact on Thursday, the Phillies took a more patient approach than what they saw against Brewers left-hander Jose Quintana the night before.
As a result, Peralta was already at 92 pitches after clearing a fifth scoreless inning, and while he could have continued “in another circumstance,” manager Pat Murphy said, this probably isn’t the time to push things. The Brewers already sealed a season series victory over the Phillies (which could come into play later for postseason seeding purposes) and own a 5 1/2 game lead over the Cubs in the NL Central standings with 21 to play.
“That might be an extra step for him to walk into superstardom from what he’s doing right now, which is pretty darn special,” Murphy said.
The Brewers can ill afford to risk the health of their pitchers with the way things have been going. While closer Trevor Megill, who threw successfully off the mound on Thursday for the first time since hitting the injured list with a flexor strain, and Grant Anderson, who is scheduled to make a rehab appearance on Saturday, are believed to be making progress, the Brewers are also without relievers Shelby Miller (out for the season) and DL Hall (sidelined until late September at the earliest).
On top of all that, Murphy hinted that the Brewers were poised to place another “significant” reliever on the IL as soon as Friday, though he was not yet prepared to say whom. Abner Uribe and Jared Koenig both warmed up during Thursday’s game, so they don’t appear to be candidates for that mystery ailment.
“It’s just tough right now,” Murphy said. “We’ll deal with it the best way we can. You look around, everybody’s had injuries, it just seems like we’ve had more than anybody. And I’m not complaining, because our guys step up every time.”