Today's Three Things: Martín Pérez Has That Dog in Him

Veteran lefty takes a no-hitter into the 7th after he found out he was starting about one hour before game time

The Atlanta Braves took down the Washington Nationals 8-3 in Truist Park on Saturday night.

Here is Today’s Three Things from the contest.

The Turning Point

The Braves got back-to-back home runs from Ronald Acuña Jr and Matt Olson in the first inning, an RBI double from Mike Yastrzemski in the 2nd, and a solo shot in the 4th from Dominic Smith to build their 4-0 lead. But it was surprisingly fragile despite the no-hitter in progress.

The Nationals didn’t pick up their first hit until two outs in the 7th, but a Brady House single and a walk of Jacob Young had Washington with the tying run on deck. Martín Pérez was undaunted, inducing a first-pitch flyout to end the inning.

Atlanta’s offense was apparently spooked by how close the game got, because they were set to stop anything like that from happening again. Atlanta opened the bottom half of the 7th with a Drake Baldwin walk and never stopped, putting up four more runs thanks to three walks, a defensive error, a wild pitch, and an Austin Riley double to center.

Today’s Player of the Game

There was never any other option but Martín Pérez here.

The 35-year-old was the scheduled starter for Sunday, but roughly 30-35 minutes before game time (and after he had thrown a bullpen, worked out, and eaten a meal), the team approached him and asked if he could pitch. Scheduled starter Reynaldo López was dealing with some knee inflammation, and the decision was made to skip his start.

Per BravesVision’s Paul Byrd, Pérez’s response, before they had a chance to finish asking him, was “give me the ball.”

He took it, and ran with it. Pérez carried a no-hitter into the 7th inning for his longest start of the season, walking two and striking out six. Everything was working for the veteran lefty today - he had a 31% whiff rate tonight, thanks to nine whiffs on 16 swings against his changeup. His CSW was 32%, with 14 called strikes (12 on the sinker). While the Nationals had 17 batted balls tonight, only five were hard-hit and Washington’s average exit velocity off of Pérez was an anemic 85.3 mph.

After the game, Pérez said, “I was not expecting this, but my teammates always have my back, and when they (Braves coaches) asked me to pitch, I was like, ‘Yes, give me the ball. I’m gonna do my job.’ I think sometimes, you don’t expect things and you just go out there and try to do your job and you get a good result.”

“Today was a great game.”

The Braves are expected to use prospect JR Ritchie, who was scratched from his Saturday start for Triple-A Gwinnett, as an emergency spot starter on Sunday. Per comments from manager Walt Weiss, Reynaldo López is expected to go on the injured list tomorrow.

What You’ll Be Talking About

Outside of Pérez’s heroics, the offensive explosion, and three defensive errors by Atlanta (a fielding and a throwing on Jim Jarvis, as well as a missed catch by Matt Olson), it’s probably going to be the in-game trade.

During the 9th inning, ESPN’s Jeff Passan broke news of outfielder Lane Thomas and lefty reliever Bailey Falter going from the Kansas City Royals to the Atlanta Braves. Falter’s been in AAA almost all season and is there merely to balance the salaries, but Thomas is the righty bat that mashes lefties the Braves have been looking for all season. Over the last four seasons, from 2023 through today, Thomas has a 135 wRC+ against left-handed pitching, hitting .290/.366/.491 with 19 HR and 72 RBI in 519 plate appearances.

Full breakdown coming soon on the newsletter.

Looking for more discussion about this game?

Here’s tonight’s Postcast, with me and Locked On Braves host Jake Mastroianni, as we went live to break down the contest.

What’s Next for the Braves?

Atlanta has an opportunity to sweep the series on Sunday afternoon at 1:35 PM ET, opposed by Washington’s #1 starter Cade Cavalli (8-4, 3.55 ERA).