Pérez’s No-Hit Gem Powers Braves Past Hapless Nationals

Sometimes baseball rewards you for doing things right, and sometimes it punishes you for doing them dead wrong. On Saturday at Truist Park, the Atlanta Braves did plenty of the former while the Washington Nationals couldn’t get out of their own way, resulting in a predictable 8-3 laugher that felt closer to a mercy ruling than a competitive ballgame.

Martín Pérez was absolutely magnificent for Atlanta, spinning seven innings of near-perfect baseball that would’ve had Cy Young voters salivating if this were October. The veteran lefty took a no-hitter into the seventh inning, allowing just one hit while striking out six and walking two. That’s the kind of performance that wins you ballgames by itself. Unfortunately for Miles Mikolas and the Nationals, their starter couldn’t carry his end of the bargain, surrendering four runs on nine hits in six innings. When your starting pitcher is getting shelled while the other guy is painting masterpieces, you’re cooked before the third inning is over.

The Braves’ Bats Made Quick Work of It

Atlanta’s offense didn’t need much patience on Saturday. Ronald Acuña Jr. and Matt Olson went back-to-back in the bottom of the first inning, and just like that, the Nationals were already drowning. Two swings, two homers, two runs, and the game was effectively decided before most fans had finished their first beer. That’s the kind of early knockout punch that demoralizes an opponent faster than any deficit can.

Dominic Smith piled on another solo shot in the fourth, extending Atlanta’s lead to 4-0. Then in the seventh, Austin Riley uncorked a two-run double that essentially put the game completely out of reach. The Braves tacked on one more run on a Dominic Smith RBI walk, and by the time the dust settled, they’d scored eight runs while Pérez was basically playing Cy Young out there.

Washington’s Late Rally Proved Meaningless

To the Nationals’ credit, they at least showed some life in the eighth inning. Dylan Crews and CJ Abrams each drove in runs with hits off Atlanta’s bullpen, scratching out three runs and preventing complete embarrassment. But three runs against an Atlanta team that had already built an 8-0 lead? That’s not a rally, that’s window dressing on a thoroughly disappointing performance.

The Nationals came to Atlanta with a chance to take a game in the division and instead left town having been thoroughly dismantled by a Braves offense firing on all cylinders and a pitcher absolutely locked in. Pérez’s near-perfect outing, combined with the early offensive onslaught from Acuña, Olson, and Smith, made this one of those rare games where the outcome was never really in doubt.

This is baseball at its most unfair: when one team gets everything right while the other team gets everything wrong. The Nationals will need to regroup quickly because getting outpitched and outmuscled like this is a recipe for a long losing streak. The Braves, meanwhile, just showed why they remain one of the most dangerous offenses in the National League.