MILWAUKEE -- Pat Murphy remembers sitting with Freddy Peralta in Spring Training and laying down a challenge. For years, Peralta was part of a triumvirate of Brewers starting pitchers with Corbin Burnes and Brandon Woodruff, but Burnes was traded ahead of the 2024 season and Woodruff went into this year still recovering from shoulder surgery, so Peralta would have to lead the staff once again.

“You're the guy. You're coming into the year the ace,” Murphy remembers saying. “And the ace has to post.”

That’s more important than ever in this postseason, because the Brewers, as Murphy put it going into Game 1, “basically have one-and-a-half starters available, or maybe a total of two.” And Peralta is the bona fide No. 1.

He wasn’t perfect in Game 2 of the National League Championship Serie

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