Brewers activate Freddy Peralta and Eduardo Escobar from IL before Cardinals series

As expected, Freddy Peralta is being activated from the Injured List to make the start for the Brewers in tonight’s series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals.

Peralta has been held out for the last couple weeks after straining his shoulder while swinging the bat in a game against the Cardinals the last time we saw them. Peralta insisted he was mostly fine and could have continued to play, but as the Brewers have done with several other mild injuries lately, they decided to play it safe and put him on the IL.

It’s also possible the Brewers elected to put Peralta on the injured list to give him a quick break before the team makes a stretch run into the postseason — he’s already set a career-high for innings in a season with 121.1 so far this year, surpassing the 120 innings he threw between High-A and Double-A in 2017.

Also returning for this series is Eduardo Escobar, who should provide another boost for a lineup that has been playing well as of late, but may need to replace the bat of Kolten Wong for the next few days. This time, though, it’s for a good reason — Wong is headed to the paternity list.

To make room for Peralta, Alec Bettinger has been sent back to Triple-A, just one day after being called up to replace the injured Brett Anderson.