Freddy Peralta strikes out Brewers record 13 in debut, Brewers beat Rockies 7-3

There aren’t many tougher places for a 21-year-old to make his Major League debut than Coors Field against a legitimately good lineup.

Freddy Peralta made it look easy and set a franchise record in the process, striking out 13 batters in his Major League debut en route to a 7-3 win. To make the narrative even better, Peralta’s parents — who had never been able to watch him pitch professionally — were in the stands on Mother’s Day.

Peralta carried a no-hitter into the 6th inning and only truly ran into trouble once in his first big league start, escaping a bases loaded jam in the third inning. Travis Shaw dropped a soft liner and Peralta walked two that inning, but he was able to work out of it without a run scoring.

Other than that, it was smooth sailing for the 21-year-old. Peralta even struck out the side twice against the Rockies’ 4-5-6 hitters as part of those 13 strikeouts. His use of the high fastball threw the Rockies off their timing all afternoon, occasionally mixing in his slider.

The offense gave Peralta a big cushion early, with Tyler Saladino delivering a ground-rule RBI double in the 2nd inning and Christian Yelich following that up with a 2-out, 2-RBI single later in the inning to give the Brewers an early 3-0 lead. Travis Shaw added another monster solo home run in the 4th inning and Jesus Aguilar crushed a three-run home run in the 6th to give the Brewers a 7-0 lead.

Colorado’s David Dahl broke up the no-hit effort in the 6th inning and hit a two-run home run off of Dan Jennings in the bottom of the 8th to give the Rockies a bit of life, but Jeremy Jeffress relieved Jennings with two outs in the 8th and after a walk, induced an inning-ending groundout to hold the Brewers’ lead at 7-3.

Corey Knebel came on for the 9th inning and worked a 1-2-3 inning to secure the series win.

The Brewers improve to 24-17 after taking 3 of 4 against the Rockies — a winning team, if you need a reminder — and now head to Arizona to face the NL West-leading Diamondbacks.

It remains to be seen whether Peralta gets another start, but it would be hard to argue he didn’t deserve one.