Braves top Phillies for rare home win
ATLANTA -- Williams Perez was masterful in this return from the minors and the struggling Atlanta Braves got to celebrate an ultra-rare home victory Wednesday night.
Perez, starting in place of the traded Jhoulys Chacin, faced just batter over the minimum in eight innings and the Braves snapped an 11-game home losing streak with a 5-1 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies.
The only hits off Perez were a fifth-inning homer by Ryan Howard and a single by Freddie Galvez in the eighth that was followed by a double play.
Freddie Freeman was 3-for-4 and hit his sixth home run as the Braves (8-23) won for just the second time in 18 games at Turner Field.
Perez (1-0) was promoted from Triple-A earlier in the day when Chacin was traded to the Los Angeles Angels and he built off the one-hitter he had thrown in his last start for Gwinnett.
The 24-year-old right-handed pitcher from Venezuela struck out four and walked none before being lifted for a pinch hitter, throwing all except 22 of his 85 pitches for strikes.
The Braves scored their second unearned run of the game in the eighth on the third error by the Phillies (18-15) for an extra cushion and Arodys Vizcaino finished off the victory while allowing two ninth-inning singles.
The Phillies didn't have a base runner until Howard connected with Perez's first pitch of the fifth inning for his eighth homer of the season.
Perez left a sinker up and Howard sent an opposite-field liner just over the fence in left field.
The Braves scored in each of the first three innings and Freeman's homer to center field with one out in the fifth knocked right-hander Jared Eickoff out of the game.
Eickoff allowed seven hits and three of the four runs were earned in his shortest outing of the season.
Kelly Johnson had an RBI single in the first, then Nick Markakis and A.J. Pierzynski delivered sacrifice flies the next two innings against Eickoff.
Perez was summoned Wednesday morning from Rochester, where he was scheduled to pitch for Gwinnett that night, and arrived at the ballpark in mid-afternoon at about the same time the trade of Chacin was announced.
He had a 5.11 ERA in three April starts for the Braves and he didn't fare any better in his first two starts in Triple-A before throwing his first career shutout against Columbus last Friday.
Perez made 20 starts and three relief appearances for Atlanta as a rookie last year, going 7-6 for a 4.38 ERA.
NOTES: RHP Jhoulys Chacin made five starts for the Braves prior to his trade to the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday, going 1-2 with a 5.40 ERA. In exchange for Chacin, the Braves received LHP Adam McCreery, a 6-foot-8 former 22nd-round draft choice who hasn't pitched above the rookie level in the minors. ... Each team batted its starting pitcher eighth in the order. ... The three-game series concludes Thursday night, with RHP Vince Velasquez (4-1, 2.17 ERA) starting for the Phillies against RHP Aaron Blair (0-2, 3.31 ERA). ... The Phillies have a nine-game homestand beginning Friday against Cincinnati. ... The Braves' weekend interleague series in Kansas City begins a 10-game trip.