Atlanta offense can’t overcome Martin Perez meltdown

· Yahoo Sports

PHILADELPHIA, PA - SEPTEMBER 05: Martín Pérez #33 of the Atlanta Braves takes the sign from the catcher during the game between the Atlanta Braves and the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park on Saturday, September 5, 2026 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Denis Kennedy/MLB Photos via Getty Images) | MLB Photos via Getty Images

After winning the battle of the aces on Friday to kick off this huge division rival series, the Braves had a Martin Perez vs Zack Wheeler matchup to contend with tonight.

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Things started inauspiciously for Atlanta, as two singles and a walk from their first three batters of the game turned into zero runs in the first, followed immediately by four walks and a single allowed by Perez in the bottom of the inning to put the Braves in a 3-0 hole going into the second inning. Ronald pulled one back for the Braves in the third with a monster solo homer on a sweeper that wasn’t in an awful location from Wheeler. That was also Ronald’s 500th career RBI, which he picked up in style.

Perez allowed a solo homer to Schwarber, giving back the run in the fourth and allowed two more singles but Ray Kerr stranded those two Phillies to maintain the 4-1 deficit. That’s only 3.2 innings and 4 largely deserved runs allowed for Perez in a pretty rough outing for the veteran. Kerr stabilized the game and a big solo homer from Austin brought another run back in the seventh, making it a 4-2 game.

Kerr ended his outing with a big 3.1 scoreless innings with only the one strikeout but no walks and 5 whiffs on 35 pitches. Brent Suter worked a scoreless eighth, despite a single and a walk, giving the offense once last chance to overcome a two run deficit in the ninth. They went down in order to Jhoan Duran, handing the Phillies a 4-2 win to even the series.

While the offense didn’t do enough to win this game, despite some bad sequencing luck to only get 2 runs from 2 mammoth homers, Perez’ command meltdown gave the Phillies a lead that they would never relinquish.

We’ll be back tomorrow at 1:10 PM ET for game 3 of this 4-game wrap-around series.

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