Freddy Peralta delivers strong start as Rays beat Tigers, win series

Marc Topkin, Tampa Bay Times on Aug 26, 2026

Published in Baseball

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Freddy Peralta on Wednesday finally looked like the pitcher the Tampa Bay Rays had hoped they were getting.

Peralta worked six shutout innings to earn his first win in five outings since being acquired in an Aug. 2 trade, as the Rays beat the Tigers 3-0 in Detroit.

The Rays won their first series since Aug. 10-12, improving their American League-leading record to 79-54 and, most importantly, maintaining at least a 3 1/2-game East Division lead over the New York Yankees, who play Houston on Wednesday night. The Rays, who have 29 games remaining, are off Thursday, then open a six-game homestand Friday against the San Diego Padres and New York Mets.

Peralta — who was 0-2 with a 7.17 ERA over his first four Rays outings — was on his game from the start Wednesday, allowing only a pair of singles and no walks while striking out four, throwing 50 of his 81 pitches for strikes. He ended his outing in an interesting way, challenging the ball call on a 2-2 fastball to Kevin McGonigle that was overturned to become strike three.

He also got a bit of help from his teammates, handed a 2-0 lead in the second inning and getting highlight-worthy plays from shortstop Jorge Mateo (in the first) and second baseman Richie Palacios (in the sixth).

Kevin Kelly worked the seventh and eighth innings, and fellow trade addition Tyler Wells handled the ninth, earning a save on his 32nd birthday.

The Rays gave up three prospects to get the 30-year-old Peralta from the Mets, where he was 5-9 with a 4.99 ERA over 22 starts, having been traded to New York from Milwaukee during the offseason.

The Rays felt Peralta’s pitch data indicated he could be doing better and were confident that with their guidance he could look more like the pitcher who was 17-6 with a 2.70 ERA and finished fifth in voting for the Cy Young Award for the Brewers in 2025.

The Rays grabbed an early lead in the second.

Chandler Simpson led off with an infield single, a bouncer that went off the glove of Tigers starter Troy Melton. Jonny DeLuca then laced a double into the left-field corner, with Simpson racing home.

DeLuca went to third on a sacrifice bunt by Palacios and scored when Cedric Mullins pulled a grounder just fair past first.

They could have been in a situation to add on, as Mullins beat the throw to second, but he over-slid the base and was tagged out.

The Rays did add a run in the sixth.

Jonathan Aranda rapped a leadoff double, went to third on a Junior Caminero single and scored on a deep drive to right by Liam Hicks that was caught for a sacrifice fly.

Notes

— The Rays will open the Tropicana Field upper deck for Saturday’s 4:10 p.m. ET game vs. the Padres.

— The 15-game hitting streak Simpson woke up with on Tuesday ended well before he went 0 for 3 in the 4-1 loss at Detroit. MLB earlier Tuesday announced a scoring change from the Aug. 20 home game vs. Toronto, turning a Simpson single (he advanced to second on an error) into a two-base error. That actually ended his hitting streak at 10 games.

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