MILWAUKEE -- Wily Peralta may say he's moving his focus to his next start, but he has to be going crazy on the inside.
Frustrated and confused as to why Peralta hasn't been able to find success with his tremendous stuff, the Brewers are searching for a way to get their talented young right-hander going.
Peralta needed a career-high 108 pitches to get through five innings Monday afternoon, as spotty command led to a career-high five walks. Minnesota was able to capitalize on the free passes to come away with a 6-3 victory over the Brewers.
The loss was Milwaukee's 19th in its last 24 games and dropped the Brewers to 5-19 in May.
"We all have a hard time right now," Peralta said. "I just want to go out there for me and for the team, too. We are really struggling right now and you get frustrated. Too many walks today."
The script for the majority of the losses has been familiar. The starting pitcher can't go deep into the game, while the offense is spotty with rallies quickly put out by double plays.
Now the question is what to do with Peralta? He's obviously one of Milwaukee's most talented pitchers, but he hasn't come close to figuring it out, as Monday's loss dropped Peralta to 3-6 with a 6.35 ERA.
"We'll see," Brewers manager Ron Roenicke said. "We have discussions about it all the time. I'm sure (Brewers general manager) Doug (Melvin and I) will talk about it again. Somewhere we need to get him going. Wherever best that is to do it, we'll do it.
"He's got tremendous upside. But he has to be confident when he's doing this. How do you get a guy confident? It comes with success. Right now he's not that guy. He had it in the minor leagues - he didn't start off well last year in Triple-A - but then he got it and by the time he came up to us he was really confident. That is what we expected coming into the season, that we'd have the same guy, and he's not. It's not any different than a hitter or anybody else. You have to be confident when you play the game to play it well. We have to figure out how to get a guy to that point."
Though the replacement options are few and far between, could that mean sending Peralta back down to Triple-A?
"That's always something that could happen," Roenicke said. "Whether it does or not, that's a discussion we'll all have. I don't know if we're there yet. I don't know. Maybe that's what it takes sometimes. But we'll discuss that."
From the other dugout, Twins manager Ron Gardenhire was getting his first look at Peralta. Though the results weren't there, the veteran skipper liked the talent he saw.
"Free passes always seem to come back and get you," Gardenhire said. "He’s got a great arm. The guys were saying the ball really jumps on you. We were patient and made him throw pitches. We kind of nickel-and-dimed him there a little bit and made him pay for a couple of walks."
As of right now, Peralta's next start is scheduled to come Saturday in Philadelphia. If Peralta does stay in the rotation for the time being, he must pitch better to keep his spot when Chris Narveson and Hiram Burgos return from the disabled list.
One thing is certain, Peralta hasn't lost the faith of his teammates.
"His next start, I guarantee he's going to be good," Brewers center fielder Carlos Gomez said. "He's young, he's still learning. The good thing about him is that he's a fighter. He's going to come the next time and he's going to do a good job."
The Brewers wasted a multi-home run game from Gomez for the second time in three days. If things were going well, Gomez could enjoy getting back at his former team with a pair of homers, but the usually animated and energetic center fielder is clearly bothered by the way his team is playing.
"We have to figure it out and come tomorrow and continue to try and do our best," Gomez said. "When things go wrong, it's a little tough. Things are going to change. We still have 100-something games to play. This is a team that when we turn, we'll turn.
"It's not going to be the whole year like this. Someday or tomorrow, things are going to turn around and we are going to be the team that we expect to be."
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