The Braves got a brilliant pitching performance and more than enough offense Wednesday night, two things that have rarely been said in the same sentence during this stressful early season of discontent for the Bravos.
Williams Perez, flown in from a Triple-A stop in Rochester, N.Y. earlier Wednesday to replace traded starting pitcher Jhoulys Chacin, faced just one batter over the minimum in eight innings in a 5-1 Braves win over the Phillies. It was only the second win in 18 home games this season for the Braves and eighth in 32 games overall.
Freddie Freeman had three hits including his third homer in four games for the Braves, who snapped a five-game losing streak and an 11-game home skid. They scored more than four runs for only the second time in their past 19 games and won for the fourth time in that period.
As solid as their all-around performance was, the story for the Braves was Perez, who gave up just two hits and one run in eight innings and had four strikeouts with no walks in a crisp 85-pitch, 63-strike outing. A reporter mentioned to Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez that perhaps they should fly Perez in before each of his starts.
“Fly him some place and bring him back,” cracked Gonzalez, in what’s been a rarity this season for him — an upbeat postseason interview. “Hey, if that’s what it takes, it can come out of my salary. I’ll get the Delta points. Fly him to Tallahassee or something.”
Making his first major league start since April 19, Perez retired the first 12 batters before Ryan Howard’s leadoff homer in the fifth inning, then retired the next 10 before Freddy Galvis’ eighth-inning single.
“That was pretty incredible,” Freeman said. “Not knowing what’s going to happen, and the next thing you know he comes to the big leagues and throws eight innings of one-run ball. It was pretty spectacular what he did. His last start in Triple-A carried over today.”
Combined with the one-hit shutout he threw his last start for Gwinnett on Friday, Perez has allowed just one run and three hits in 17 innings over his past two outings, with one walk and 11 strikeouts.
“The home run to Howard was a first-pitch fastball,” Perez said through a translator. “He just got ahold of that one. But after that I just wouldn’t allow myself to lose focus. I wanted to keep attacking the zone and stay focused and stay aggressive throughout the rest of the game.”
After allowing a career-high nine earned runs in 4 1/3 innings of his first start against Philadelphia on July 31, Perez has limited them to 14 hits and four runs in 21 2/3 innings over his past three starts, with one walk and 17 strikeouts.
Freeman’s fifth-inning homer was his second in as many nights and pushed the Braves’ lead to 4-1. It was his fifth homer in a 12-game stretch in which he’s batted .432 (19-for-44) with with nine extra-base hits and seven multi-hit games, and his six homers this season is double the rest of the Braves’ combined total.
“I think we played a pretty solid game in all three facets, finally,” Freeman said. “I think it’s probably the first time we’ve played good defense, hit and pitched well. When you score a run in the first inning it’s nice to come back in the second and in the third, give some cushion to Williams. And he definitely took off with that.”
Perez was just the third Braves pitcher since 2000 to go as many as eight innings in 85 or fewer pitches, joining Greg Maddux (twice) and Tom Glavine.
After Perez threw 43 pitches (31 strikes) through four perfect innings, Howard hit his 44th pitch to the left-field bleachers to lead off the fifth and cut the lead to 3-1. It was Howard’s eighth homer this season, 365th of his career, and 51st in 173 games against the Braves, the most he’s hit against any team.
The Braves staked Perez to a 3-0 lead with a run in each of the first three innings against right-hander Jerad Eickhoff. They got three singles in the first inning before Eickhoff recorded his second out, with Kelly Johnson driving in a run.
Mallex Smith used his speed to help create a run in the second. The rookie hit a one-out single, stole second and went to third on catcher Cameron Rubb’s throwing error on the play, then scored on a Nick Markakis sacrifice fly.
After starting the third inning with a Freeman single and Johnson double, A.J. Pierzynski’s sacrifice fly made it 3-0.
Erick Aybar ended what had been another lousy night at the plate for the shortstop when he to drive in a run in the eighth inning. Before that he grounded out with bases loaded to end the first inning, grounded into an inning-ending double play with runners on the corners in the third, and grounded out with two on to end the fifth.
