For Mets fans, the ending may be difficult to stomach.
Freddy Peralta was named American League Championship Series MVP after the Rays clinched a berth in the World Series with a 7-3 victory over the Guardians in Game 6 at Tropicana Field.
The former Mets pitcher allowed one run across 12 innings in three outings during the ALCS.
Peralta pitched 5⅓ innings in the series-clinching victory and received a standing ovation from the Rays fans.
His success in Tampa Bay marks a dramatic turnaround from his disappointing first half in New York. Peralta posted a 4.99 ERA in 22 starts with the Mets before the Rays acquired him for three prospects at the trade deadline. His debut with Tampa Bay was rocky, as he surrendered seven runs on nine hits against the Rockies, but he quickly turned things around.
When Lauren Shehadi asked Peralta what he would have said in July if he had been told he would become ALCS MVP, he replied, “You’re crazy.”
“This is crazy, and I am very happy to be here, to be part of this great group and this great organization,” Peralta said. “This is not only mine. We all earned this. This is for the boys.”
Across the Rays’ playoff run, Peralta has recorded a 1.08 ERA and allowed only two earned runs.
Asked what had changed since joining Tampa Bay, Peralta credited the team’s coaching staff.
“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 struggles in New York and the trade that followed. “I think when I got traded and when I got here, everything changed.”
Peralta called the coaching staff’s assistance “something that I never want to forget in life.” He said 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 joined the Mets in an offseason trade with Milwaukee and was expected to serve as their ace. Instead, he finished 5-9 with a 4.99 ERA in 22 starts during a disappointing season for the Amazin’s.
The Rays will face Peralta’s former team, the Brewers, in the World Series, which begins Friday in Milwaukee.
