Freddy Peralta was named Most Valuable Player of the American League Championship Series after pitching the Tampa Bay Rays into the World Series with a 7-3 win over the Cleveland Guardians in Game 6 on Monday at Tropicana Field.
Peralta allowed just one run across 12 innings pitched over three ALCS outings. In Monday’s series-clinching game, he worked 5 ⅓ innings and left the mound to a standing ovation from the Tampa Bay crowd.
The performance marks a dramatic turnaround for the right-hander, who was struggling with the New York Mets as recently as July. Peralta had posted a 4.99 ERA across 22 starts with New York before being traded to the Rays at the deadline for three prospects. His Tampa Bay debut was rocky — he gave up seven runs on nine hits against the Colorado Rockies — but his results improved quickly from there.
Asked by Lauren Shehadi what he would have said back in July if told he’d end up as ALCS MVP, Peralta didn’t hesitate.
“You’re crazy,” Peralta said he would have responded. “This is crazy and I am very happy to be here, to be part of this great group and this great organization. This is not only mine. We all earned this. This is for the boys.”
Over the course of the Rays’ playoff run, Peralta has posted a 1.08 ERA and allowed only two earned runs.
Peralta pointed to the Tampa Bay coaching staff as the key difference from his time with the Mets.
“First thing was praying every day, as always, praying to God and asking to keep me humble, keep me on my feet, because you don’t know what can happen when you are going through moments like that,” he said of his rough stretch and subsequent trade. “I think when I got traded and when I got here, everything changed.”
He described the coaches’ support as “something that I never want to forget in life,” adding he is “very grateful to have people like that here and people that I never saw before, and now they are part of my family.”
Peralta had originally joined the Mets in an offseason trade with Milwaukee, brought in to serve as the team’s ace. Instead, he went 5-9 with a 4.99 ERA across 22 starts in what became a disappointing season for New York.
Now the Rays will face Peralta’s former club, the Milwaukee Brewers, in the World Series, which opens Friday in Milwaukee.
