Problems We Can Only Wish We Had

I’m a little worried about Freddy Peralta.

To be clear, I’m not worried about Peralta himself — he’s a rich man, one who’ll soon have a new employer, maybe one who can figure out what’s gone so thoroughly awry with his pitching this season. No, I’m worried about how I react to him. I’ve gone from indifference to visceral, anticipatory loathing — just the sight of Peralta leaves me frothing at the mouth, in ways that do me no credit.

Peralta doesn’t want to pitch poorly — not ever, and certainly not in a return to Milwaukee and the franchise where he had great success. I’m sure he’s upset about it, and frustrated, and maybe even embarrassed. But pitching poorly is what he did, again — this time it was Monday night, as he faced the Brewers for the first time since David Stearns traded for him to be a Mets’ ace, only to wind up with … I dunno, a 3 of clubs? And it left me stewing on my couch, uselessly spewing venom into the social-media void.

It was an additional cruelty that Peralta’s opponent was the otherworldly Jacob Misiorowski. Misiorowski was electric in the first, hitting 104 against an admiring Juan Soto, and a bit less so after that, but by that point it didn’t much matter, not with Peralta throwing batting practice against his old mates.

Misiorowski didn’t even stick around for the five innings needed to qualify for a gimme win. The Brewers face a problem with their phenom that the Mets would love to have: He’s set to throw far more innings than he ever has before, and Milwaukee wants to save some of his bullets for the postseason and not risk an injury to that amazing arm. Misiorowski went 13 days between starts and his usage will now be throttled down the stretch.

It makes sense, in a modern baseball way, but it felt like insult to injury: The Brewers are looking at October as the real prize and strategizing how to best play an ace. Beating the Mets on a July night? That’s incidental — and not too tactically demanding. You don’t need a Misiorowski to beat the Mets — most nights, they’ll take care of it themselves.