Pérez leads Braves to series-opening win over Tigers

Led by starter Martín Pérez, the Braves started off another series with a victory by beating the Tigers 5-2 at Truist Park on Tuesday.

Pérez got through five innings unscathed despite walking four batters. He only allowed two hits and struck out five while lowering his ERA to 2.22. The lefty tossed 91 pitches.

“Yeah, a lot of walks, but I think I walked a lot of good hitters, too,” Pérez said. “So I think we threw strikes, I was making good pitches, but they don’t swing. They are good hitters, too, and sometimes you have to give credit to them.

“Overall, I think was a great game. Five innings, no runs. The walks is going to happen. Sometimes you don’t have to try to be perfect. And I think with two strikes I was doing that a little bit.”

Ronald Acuña Jr. hit a pair of doubles in his first two at-bats and Mike Yastrzemski had his third two-hit game in a Braves uniform and first since March 29. The Braves (21-9) improved to 8-2 in series openers and are off to their best 30-game start since 2000.

“It seems like everyone shows up the same every day. These guys are fun to be around,” said Yastrzemski, who signed a two-year, $23-million contract with the Braves in December. “When we lose, it’s not like the end of the world. We’re not happy-go-lucky after we lose, but we’re not really fazed by that. And when we win, we don’t feel like, ‘Oh, everything’s gonna fall our way all the time.’ It’s just kind of even-keel and everyone shows up the same and that makes it really enjoyable to just be at the ballpark every day because you know what you get.”

For the 17th time in 30 games, the Braves lit the scoreboard first thanks to Acuña’s third inning RBI double to the corner in left field that scored Yastrzemski from second. In the ensuing at-bat, Drake Baldwin rolled a ball up the first base line and Tigers’ starter Casey Mize injured his groin trying to make a play on the ball.

Brant Hurter, a former Georgia Tech pitcher, came out of the bullpen to face Matt Olson, who lined a sacrifice fly to center to score Acuña who has been on base 19 straight games.

In the fifth, the final inning for Pérez, a double and a walk brought Tigers star rookie Kevin McGonigle to the plate with two outs. Pérez fell behind 3-0, but then threw two sinkers, the second of which was hit to the wall in right where Acuña was camped out to make an inning-ending, jumping catch.

“With the last batter (I faced), I went like, ‘You want to hit it? Just hit it.’ I’m not gonna go around anymore because I don’t want to keep these guys (Braves hitters) off timing when it’s time to hit.”

Didier Fuentes, the 20-year-old right-handed starter recalled from Triple-A Gwinnett on Tuesday, pitched around a one-out walk in the sixth and got three fly ball outs in the seventh.

Fuentes was added to the roster to replace Dylan Lee who is on paternity leave. Fuentes said he had to leave Charlotte, North Carolina, where the Gwinnett Stripers are playing this week, at 9 a.m. Tuesday.

“I think just pitching out of the bullpen has already helped me a lot,” Fuentes said via team interpreter Franco Garcia. “My preferred role is to be a starter. But like we said, whatever the team needs from me, or whatever I can do to help the team win, I’m here for that.”

The Braves got a little insurance in the seventh with a two-out double to right by Mauricio Dubón followed by a soft single to right from Yastrzemski. Yastrzemski’s batting average climbed back over .200 and the RBI was his first since April 17.

“It’s a tough game, right? So things come and go, and probably just trying to press too hard to start the year and try and be as involved as I can,” Yastrzemski said. “But it’s why we play a team sport, and we got a lot of guys in here that are playing really well and got to lean heavily on them. But it was also nice to contribute tonight.”

Nursing that 3-0 lead until the eighth, Ozzie Albies hit a two-run home run into the Tigers bullpen in left making it 5-0. It was Albies’ sixth homer of the season.

Tyler Kinley allowed a one-out infield single and two-out double in the eighth but nothing else. Braves manager Walt Weiss let the right-handed Kinley stay in the game to face the left-handed hitting Riley Greene and Kinley caught Greene looking on a slider on the outside black.