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Peralta, who has struck out eight times in 20 plate appearances this season, is particularly struggling with offspeed pitches, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. "He's getting a lot," manager Mike Matheny said. "He's getting a lot of good pitches inside, too. It's a shame. (In) spring he was in such a good rhythm, and we were just hoping to see that carry over. And it will come back. He's got the strength. That was kind of missing ever since the injury. The strength is there. Now it's just timing. We're just going to stay the course, in Jhonny's case."
Peralta has posted a sub-20 percent strikeout rate for three straight seasons and six of the last seven overall, so his early struggles are a definitive outlier. The veteran has seen either curves, sliders or changeups at near 50 percent clip this season and according to Statcast, has missed on 48 percent of the offspeed offerings he's swung at. Peralta was deployed in the cleanup spot over the first two games of the season before subsequently sliding down to fifth and sixth over the following four contests. The 34-year-old will continue give way to Jedd Gyorko occasionally at third, but it appears that Matheny has no plans on curtailing Peralta's playing time other than for the occasional rest day for the time being.
