Mets' Freddy Peralta lit up by former team as Brewers take series opener

Abbey Mastracco, New York Daily News on Jul 20, 2026

Published in Baseball

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MILWAUKEE — Freddy Peralta came off the field in the bottom of the sixth to an ovation from the fans who have watched him pitch since he was a teenager. This wasn’t the pitcher they once knew, and it was as if they knew he needed some encouragement after another tough outing in a season full of them.

The former Milwaukee Brewers ace gave up eight runs over only 5 1/3 innings in his return to American Family Field on Monday night, and the New York Mets lost 8-3 in the first game of the series.

Peralta allowed eight hits, walked two and struck out six in his ninth loss of the season (5-9), matching the second-most losses in his career. He’s one away from matching his career-worst mark of 10, and his ERA is now at 5.00.

The Mets (42-59) managed only one unearned run in four innings off Peralta’s replacement, 24-year-old fireballer Jacob Misiorowski, and two runs off the Milwaukee bullpen. After seeing improved results at the plate over the weekend in a series win in Philadelphia, the Mets could do next-to-nothing with Misiorowski’s 104 MPH fastball, and the Brewers (63-37) were able to mix and match effectively to keep the Mets off balance.

The visitors rallied for two runs in the eighth off veteran right-hander Lance McCullers Jr., after having managed only one baserunner in the previous three innings.

There is seemingly no rhyme or reason as to why Peralta has struggled to this extent. Peralta had an ERA under 3.00 last season, and there was nothing to indicate a drop-off in publicly available metrics.

Collectively, the Mets’ pitching staff has nasty stuff. The execution of that stuff is a different story. It all works out on paper, but in reality, the numbers don’t match. This has been the downfall of David Stearns’s teams over the last two seasons. His inability to read a room and understand the intangibles has led to a team that lacks cohesion and lacks wins.

But Peralta was supposed to be different. A fantastic teammate who is nearly always upbeat, Peralta knew how to pitch. He had the stuff, the numbers, and the innate ability to know what to throw and when. He has that it-factor that has largely been missing from the Mets’ starting rotations since they traded Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander in 2023.

Or at least, he had it. Now, he’s desperately trying to rediscover it.

Peralta got into trouble immediately, walking the second hitter he faced, Jackson Chourio, then giving up an RBI double to Brice Turang, a player who typically does well against the Mets. He got William Contreras looking, but then Garrett Mitchell singled to right field to score Turang, making it 2-0.

Cooper Pratt homered in the second to make it 3-0, and Milwaukee went up 5-1 in the bottom of the third with a two-run homer from Andrew Vaughn. With two outs, Peralta gave up a single to Mitchell, then the homer to Vaughn.

He allowed only one baserunner over the next two innings before putting two on with two out in the bottom of the sixth. With No. 9 hitter Joey Ortiz up, the Mets went to right-hander Xzavion Curry, who gave up a three-run shot on the second pitch, a hanging curveball.

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