TL;DR
Ozzie Albies homered as the Atlanta Braves defeated the Detroit Tigers 3-0. MartĂn PĂ©rez continued his strong performance, pitching five scoreless innings and lowering his ERA to 2.22.
ATLANTA, GA - APRIL 28: MartĂn Perez #33 of the Atlanta Braves reacts in the third inning during action against the Detroit Tigers at Truist Park on April 28, 2026 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Matthew Grimes Jr./Atlanta Braves/Getty Images) | Getty Images
ATLANTA, GA - APRIL 28: MartĂn Perez #33 of the Atlanta Braves reacts in the third inning during action against the Detroit Tigers at Truist Park on April 28, 2026 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Matthew Grimes Jr./Atlanta Braves/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The Atlanta Braves took on the Detroit Tigers in a clash of first place teams, both with some of the best rotation outputs in MLB. The Braves are red hot having won twenty games before May for the first time in franchise history, and going 20-9 for only the ninth time in franchise history. This game had the makings of a low scoring affair if MartĂn PĂ©rez was able to keep up his surprising start. As a side note, this series will be the only time these two teams meet in the regular season.
MartĂn PĂ©rez has kept runs off the board, but his underlying metrics show he has been lucky. He got the job done again tonight though. Casey Mize, the Tigersâ SP for the night, has been stellar so far this season. However, he has never beaten Atlanta and holds a career 4.66 ERA against them.
MartĂn PĂ©rez sat down the the first three hitters he faced with relative ease, and this is important because Gleyber Torres has three HRs against him in his twenty-two at-bats against PĂ©rez. Ronald Acuña may finally be heating up as he smoked a ball for a double to lead off the the bottom of the first inning. It looked like the Braves would start their scoring then with Baldwin moving the runner to third with a groundout and then walking. However, Mize was able to Albies to strike out and Harris to ground out.
PĂ©rez made it interesting in the second, but just like the rest of the year he was fortunate in the stranding runners on base department. He produced a groundout, but then gave up a walk on an ABS challenged pitch. After a Greene groundout, he gave up another walk. Fortunately, he calmed down and got the strike out to end the top of the second.
The Braves could not get anything going in the second, and to add salt to the wound lost a challenge on a strikeout. Pérez settled down for the most part in the third by only giving up one baserunner, but it was yet another walk. The Braves finally broke through in the third inning. Yastrzemski decided it was time to get out of his slump and hit a double. Not to be outdone, Acuña followed that up with his second double of the night to plate the first run of the game.
grounded out to the pitcher, and unfortunately Mize then left the game due to groin tightness.
On the same play, it moved Acuña to third and Matt Olson cashed in by hitting a sacrifice fly to make the score 2-0. Albies grounded out, but the Braves had done what they needed to. In the fourth inning, PĂ©rez finally gave up his first hit when Dingler hit a single. By this time it seemed like it was not possible that it was the first hit because of the amount of baserunners, but PĂ©rez has been really good at keeping his composure this season to stay calm and strand runners. Dinglerâs single was the only base runner of the inning for the Tigers.
The good news for in the fourth inning is he finally got on base. The bad news is that it was due to a throwing error from a pitcher who would not have even been in the game if it were not for an injury. finally saw some playing time replacing Dominic Smith at DH due the pitching matchup, but he unfortunately struck out. The Braves were not able to capitalize on the error and Riley was the only baserunner of the inning.
Pérez stayed in the pitch the fifth inning and it was the right move, technically, but it was not without its drama. Lee doubled to start the inning, but Pérez got Båez to groundout. He then got a strikeout, but then it got scary for a second when Torres walked and then after a mound visit Kevin McGonigle looked to have hit a HR, but Acuña does what he does best and jumped at the wall to make the play to end the top of the fifth. The Braves were shut down in the fifth, but thanks to Acuña, they maintained their lead.
In the sixth inning made his first appearance since being called up. This goes to show he likely will remain in the reliever role for now. PĂ©rez ended his night with 5.0 IP with two hits, zero runs, and five strikeouts, lowering his season ERA to 2.22. Fuentes stayed in the game for 2.0 innings and only allowed one baserunner via a walk. He also picked up a strikeout along the way. The Braves again had a blank on offense in the bottom of the sixth.
In the bottom of the seventh Riley led off with a strikeout which was confirmed via ABS and Farmer stuck out again as well. However, the back end of the lineup came through as DubĂłn had a double, making it four total for the Braves thus far in the game and then Yastrzemsi knocked him in with a single to make the score 3-0.
Moving onto the eighth inning and we see that is human after all when he gave up a single and a double. But, he did not give up a run and had assistance from ABS with a strikeout when Greene challenged and failed on an excellent pitch on the lower corner.
In the bottom of the eighth Baldwin continued to struggle with a pop out but Matt Olson and made up for it when Olson hit a double and then smacked a HR to make the score 5-0. Shocker alert, it was against a lefty.
It looked like more damage may be done with a single from Harris and Farmer but no more runs were scored. With the Braves bullpen, confidence was high.
With a five run cushion, came in to pinch. Fortunately the five run cushion existed because Bummer did not have his best night. He gave up a two-run HR, but was able to get three outs to end it.
It is hard to say if the Braves would win this game if it was simulated multiple times because of the Mize injury and PĂ©rez walking as many hitters as he did, but the Braves were having no issues hitting doubles like it was batting practice and score enough runs to get the job done.
The first team to twenty-one wins will have a tougher test tomorrow as they face two-time reigning Cy Young winner tomorrow at the same time and the same place.
