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Dylan Crews rounds second base on a first-inning triple. (Scott Taetsch\/Getty Images)<\/p>\nTriple-A Rochester manager Matt LeCroy summoned Luis Perales to his office after Tuesday\u2019s loss to Buffalo with a question for the young right-hander: Who\u2019s the toughest hitter Perales faced in Triple-A?<\/p>\n
Perales stared back, stupefied. He felt he hadn\u2019t struggled with any Triple-A hitters, and his 3.64 ERA over 25 games backs up that assertion. He told his skipper, \u201cNo one. I haven\u2019t faced anyone that I\u2019ve struggled with.\u201d LeCroy said, \u201cIt\u2019s me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perales became more perplexed after hearing that response, considering he had never \u2014 nor would he ever \u2014 face his manager. <\/p>\n
\u201cThen he was like, \u2018Yeah, exactly, because you\u2019re going to D.C.,\u201d Perales said before the Nationals\u2019 13-1 loss against the Colorado Rockies on Wednesday night. \u201cAnd, for me, it was kind of shocking. I stood in silence for like five minutes and was just really happy after that.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Perales had a humbling experience against the Rockies, who tagged the right-hander for four runs over two innings. The Rockies\u2019 lineup is devoid of star power. It was a good early lesson for the right-hander about the difference in difficulty between the majors and Triple-A. <\/p>\n
In Wednesday\u2019s loss to the Rockies, Perales \u2014 who was acquired from Boston in the Jake Bennett trade \u2014 fell behind in the count constantly and struggled throwing strikes (51% of his pitches were strikes). <\/p>\n
Things unraveled for Perales in the seventh. He allowed back-to-back singles and a walk to load the bases with one out. He overpowered Mickey Moniak, striking him out on three pitches, but allowed a grand slam to Connor Norby on a 94.3 mph cutter in the zone that sucked the life out of an already listless crowd at Nationals Park. After Perales allowed a single in the next at-bat, manager Blake Butera removed him. <\/p>\n
\u201cI did what I could,\u201d Perlaes. \u201cAt the end of the day, I just want to get out of that inning, and I couldn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
The tantalizing nature of his right arm assuages concerns of the high walk rate. Perales\u2019 upside is immense and worth a shot for a pitching-bereft Nationals team. <\/p>\n
Skepticism about the deal ensued after Bennett flourished in Boston. But the rationale from Washington\u2019s perspective was that it was adding a hard-throwing righty with a high ceiling. <\/p>\n
Perales underwent Tommy John elbow surgery in 2024 and pitched just six games in 2025. He also started six games in the Arizona Fall League. Experiencing that setback proved beneficial for him in learning how to take care of his body. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe most important thing was strengthening the arm \u2014 that was my main focus and what I learned the most,\u201d he said. \u201cRight now, in the role of a reliever, things the same, but it\u2019s just taking care more of the recovery side.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dylan Crews rounds second base on a first-inning triple. (Scott Taetsch\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
The recovery aspect will be important. Perales started 19 games this season but transitioned to the bullpen to give the big league team a powerful arm. His fastball sat at 98.5 mph in the minors. The organization isn\u2019t ruling out a future as a starter, but in the short term the Nationals view this move as best for the team and for Perales.<\/p>\n
When he entered in the fifth, it was the first time this season, Perales said, that he came into a game with a runner on base and one out. The young righty had to face Willi Castro, with Moniak due up behind him. Perales fell behind Castro 3-0 before he landed his first strike, but the at-bat ended in a walk. <\/p>\n
He got ahead 0-2 before Moniak evened the count by taking two balls. Moniak stayed alive by fouling off two four-seamers before Perales struck him out swinging with an 89.9 mph splitter at the bottom of the strike zone for his first major league strikeout.<\/p>\n
Perales was tantalizing, but he needs to limit the walks and be more in the zone \u2014 40% of his pitches were in the zone. His fastball sat at 99.6 mph Wednesday, but he struggled locating it for strikes. He said pregame that the plan was for him to lean more into his splitter. <\/p>\n
Butera said he\u2019d like to see Perales \u201cattack a bit more with the fastball.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s something we\u2019re gonna sit down and talk with him about in terms of what he was thinking and just make sure we\u2019re thinking along with him in terms of how he wants to attack and what his mindset should look like,\u201d Butera said.<\/p>\n
Now that he\u2019s a major league reliever, Perales has to be prepared to navigate situations with traffic on the bases. <\/p>\n
That makes it even more pertinent that he is more aggressive earlier in counts. The rocky start didn\u2019t deter Perales, who knows he\u2019s going to get the ball again. Next time, he just has to execute. <\/p>\n
\u201cI feel really good, and happy, to be here. One inning isn\u2019t gonna define the type of pitcher I am,\u201d he said. \u201cJust gotta keep working hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
This article has been updated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Triple-A Rochester manager Matt LeCroy summoned Luis Perales to his office after Tuesday\u2019s loss to Buffalo with a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":789607,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2405],"tags":[5,668,167,52,4316,4,505,168,669],"class_list":["post-789606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-colorado-rockies","tag-baseball","tag-bestof","tag-colorado","tag-colorado-rockies","tag-coloradorockies","tag-mlb","tag-national-league","tag-rockies","tag-topix"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117166540695200530","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=789606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/789607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=789606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=789606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=789606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}