Three weeks ago it wasn’t clear if or when right-hander Williams Perez would get another chance to pitch for the Braves.
His third stint with the team ended after three starts because he couldn’t last more than four innings in any of them. Two subsequent starts for Triple-A Gwinnett didn’t go much better.
But then Perez made a mechanical adjustment to his delivery before his last start for Gwinnett and pitched a one-hit shutout. That earned him a call-up as an emergency starter against the Phillies on Wednesday and he allowed just two hits and a run over eight innings in the 5-1 victory.
Perez, 24, now has a chance to stay in the team's young pitching rotation.
“I spoke with the coaches and they gave me a clear message the things they wanted me to work on and improve on when I was down there (with Gwinnett),” Perez said through an interpreter. “I had something to focus on. When I was down there I got down to work. I had a good feeling. I was hoping they would give me another chance. I’m grateful that they did.”
Perez got word late Tuesday that he was needed in Atlanta because the Braves were trading scheduled starter Jhoulys Chacin to the Angels. Perez caught an early-morning flight from Rochester and said he was “a little tired” when he arrived at Turner Field but didn’t want to let that affect his outlook.
It turned out Perez didn’t have to work very hard to shut down the Phillies. He needed just 85 pitches (62 strikes) while facing one more than the minimum 24 batters. The Phillies managed just one three-ball count and nearly half the batters were retired on three pitches or less.
Only two Braves pitcher since 2000 pitched eight innings while throwing fewer pitches than Perez: Greg Maddux (2004 and 2001) and Tom Glavine (2002). Gonzalez said he and pitching coach Roger McDowell have repeatedly told Perez that he’s got “good enough stuff” that he shouldn’t fear throwing a lot of strikes.
“The coaches always kept encouraging me to attack the strike zone so I really tried to focus on that today,” Perez said. “Obviously it yielded the results that I wanted. All of the pitches felt good today.”
Perez was perfect through four innings as the Braves took a 3-0 lead. Phillies slugger Ryan Howard led off the fifth inning with an opposite-field home run on Perez’s first pitch.
Perez, 24, has a history of prolonging innings once he runs into trouble. But this time he responded by retiring the next 10 batters in a row following Howard’s homer. After Freddy Galvis hit a one-out single in the eighth, Perez got pinch hitter Darin Ruf to ground into a double play.
Gonzalez said he didn’t consider letting Perez pitch the ninth inning because Perez had thrown 112 pitches in his previous start and also wanted to get relief pitcher Arodys Vizcaino some work.
"I hope today is one of those starts that will make him turn the corner," Gonzalez said of Perez. "He's a special guy. Here we are, we've got five young starters. This is what we wanted, this what I wanted, and keep building on that."
