Pitching on short notice, Pérez pushes Braves to another win

“So when they told me, ‘It’s you or the bullpen,’ I’m like, ‘I got it.’ I’m gonna show them how fun it is to be here and how comfortable I feel here. I’m not gonna do something wrong and gonna put my team in a bad situation. I just got the ball and did my job today.”

Pérez said after he had taken a pregame nap, he was in the restroom when he heard a commotion in the clubhouse and people calling his name. His first thought? “They trade me.”

That was about 55 minutes before first pitch.

Right-hander Reynaldo López was scratched prior to the game because of left knee inflammation, according to the Braves. Manager Walt Weiss said after the game that López will likely be placed on the injured list while he awaits results of an MRI.

“We were scrambling. We didn’t know what we were going to do,” Weiss said.

Weiss explained how they considered all sorts of options, including using a relief pitcher for an inning or two to give Pérez more time to get loose. But Pérez declined that option and insisted he had plenty of time to get ready.

And he got ready to work in a hurry, but not before calling his wife to let her know he would be on the mound. He then limited the Nationals to one hit over seven innings while striking out six.

The veteran lefty worked around two walks and three Braves errors for his longest outing of the season and longest since Aug. 26 while pitching for the White Sox. Pérez threw just 78 pitches.

“I think for me is, I don’t have excuses, and I’m an employee, so if you need me to do something, and I’m available, why not do it?” Pérez said. “They’ve been showing me a lot of respect, a lot of love, and I think to do the same is just doing it - get the ball and pitch.

“I’m not gonna put my team in a bad situation if I can do something to help the team to win, and that happened tonight. I’ve been doing this for, you know, half of my life. I like to pitch, man. I like to compete. And, no, I was not expecting it, but like I say, my team needs me on the mound, I’m gonna be ready to do my job.”

Pérez (5-3) got ahead of 14 of the 25 batters he faced and got 14 called strikes using his pinpoint control. The velocity measurements on three of his four pitches were all down a tick, but the Nationals (55-57) only connected for five hard-hit balls and grounded out 10 times (a number that maybe would have been more if not for the defensive miscues).

The victory gave the Braves (66-45) their fourth win in a row, 24th series win and 14th series win at home. They are also now 56-1 when leading after eight innings and 36-7 when hitting at least two home runs — which they got a start on doing early.

Ronald Acuña Jr. gave the Braves a 1-0 lead in the first when he took a 1-0 pitch from Nationals starter Miles Mikolas (3-8) and put it into the waterfall in center field. Matt Olson, one pitch later, lined a solo shot down the first-base line for his 30th homer of the year.

Olson now has five MLB seasons, three with the Braves, in which he has hit 30 home runs.

With one out in the second, Mike Yastrzemski popped a ball into no-man’s land behind third that landed safely in for what turned out to be a double in the scorebook. Drake Baldwin, with two outs, lined an RBI single to left, making it 3-0.

Dominic Smith made it a 4-0 game in the fourth when he battled back from an 0-2 hole to work a full count and then ripped a slider into the Chop House.

All that was more than enough run support for Pérez, who was one out away from seven no-hit innings. But House lined a 2-0 sinker to right for a clean base hit. The Truist Park crowd, recognizing the moment, gave Pérez a long and well-deserved ovation.

“I was not thinking of that,” Pérez said of losing the no-hitter. “I mean, I knew that I was throwing good, but I was just competing, trying to hit my spots, use all my pitches, trying to hit my locations, and that was all. I always enjoy the game too, and we get the win.”

Left-hander Danny Young followed Pérez and couldn’t keep the shutout intact. He walked James Wood, hit Andrés Chaparro, gave up an RBI double to Dylan Crews and a two-run single to CJ Abrams - all with two outs in the eighth.

Riley Cornelio, a right-handed reliever for the Nationals, gave the Braves some insurance in the seventh when he walked Smith with the bases loaded. Eddy Yean came in from the Nats bullpen to try to put out the fire, but threw a wild pitch that brought in another run.

Austin Riley smoked a ball into the gap in left that a diving center fielder Jacob Young had pop out of his glove. That was the only hit in the Braves’ four-run seventh.