Williams Perez again shut down the Phillies on Saturday afternoon, pitching 6 1/3 shutout innings in a 2-0 victory that gave the Braves two consecutive wins for the first time since April 19.

Both starters were effective. Adam Morgan lasted six innings and allowed just one two-run inning, but that was all Atlanta needed to back up Perez’s performance.
Jeff Francoeur and Nick Markakis reached to start the fourth, and Ender Inciarte ripped a double past a diving Odubel Herrera in left-center. Erick Aybar followed with a sacrifice fly to cap the scoring for the Braves, who will have a chance to split a 10-game road trip and claim their second series sweep of the season with a win in Sunday’s finale.
“It means a lot with all these guys have been through,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “All I heard was these guys never quit. They just keep getting after it. Things aren’t going their way, but they just keep fighting every day. They’ve done every bit of that since I’ve been here.”
All the Phillies mustered against Perez 10 days ago in Atlanta was a Ryan Howard home run. But Perez limited them to even less on Saturday. Three Phillies reached base, two singles and a walk spread over three innings, and none stayed on the basepaths for more than one batter.
Perez celebrated his 25th birthday in fine fashion, retiring each of the first eight batters he faced and allowing just two hits over 6 2/3 innings. He has retired 42 of the 47 Phillies batters faced this season. His latest mastery of Philadelphia was aided by the diving grab third baseman Chase d’Arnaud made to rob Herrera of a hit and end the third inning with a runner on base.
“I’m so happy because it was my birthday,” Perez said while showing off his improved ability to speak English. “Every pitch was working.”
Inciarte’s fourth-inning RBI double stands as one of the three hits he’s recorded in six at-bats against Morgan this season. More importantly, it helped the Braves take advantage of a scoring opportunity after Francoeur and Markakis reached safely before the inning’s first out was recorded. The Braves entered Saturday having hit .230 with runners in scoring position over their past 23 games.
The Braves and Phillies scored about as many runs as can be expected from the two worst offenses in baseball on a cold and drizzly mid-May game. All the runs (two) came from Atlanta’s bats in the third inning. The Phils were shut out for only the second time in 43 games. Morgan pitched well enough to win, but Philadelphia stranded three baserunners and that was all the offense it could eke out against Perez and the Braves’ bullpen. With the two-run margin of victory, Atlanta pulled even with the Phillies for least runs scored this season, each now with an MLB-worst 137.
“It’s obvious that we haven’t been hitting the ball the way I think we’re capable of hitting,” Mackanin said. “Sure, it gets to you after a while. I don’t know if we can sustain the pace of scoring two or three runs a night.”
Herrera comes up short: It took only four innings for Herrera to lay out twice in center field. However, on both attempts, he came up just short. It resulted in a harmless single in the first, when Freddie Freeman laced a ball into right-center past a diving Herrera. David Lough backed up and Morgan retired the next batter. But the damage came in the fourth, when Herrera took an awkward route to a ball off Inciarte’s bat, resulting in him lying on the center field grass as Inciarte jogged into second and Francoeur raced home to score the Braves’ first run.
Casey Kelly will take the mound when the finale of this three-games series begins on Sunday at 12:35 p.m. CT. Kelly has been promoted from Triple-A Gwinnett to fill the rotation spot opened when Aaron Blair was optioned to Gwinnett on Wednesday. He was acquired from the Padres in exchange for Christian Bethancourt in December. Thunder Radio will bring you the broadcast of that contest on the Braves Radio Network

Josh Phegley delivered Bruce Maxwell with the winning run on a walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth inning to give the Nashville Sounds a 4-3 win over the Sacramento River Cats in front of a sellout crowd of 10,820 Saturday night at First Tennessee Park.

With the scored tied 3-3 to start the bottom of the ninth, Maxwell drew a walk to give the Sounds a base runner. Rangel Ravelo followed with a line drive single up the middle, and Jaycob Brugman moved both runners with a sacrifice bunt.

Duke Welker issued an intentional walk to Joey Wendle to load the bases. On a 3-2 pitch, Phegley lined a base hit to left field to score Maxwell and give the Sounds (23-19) their seventh straight win.

Nashville jumped out to an early lead when Andrew Lambo singled home Phegley in the bottom of the first to make it 1-0. Phegley singled in the first at bat of his MLB rehab assignment.

Chad Pinder followed Lambo’s single with a sacrifice fly to deep right field to up the lead to 2-0.

Ravelo sparked a two-out rally in the fourth when he tripled to the gap in right-center. Brugman, making his Sounds and Triple-A debut, lined a base hit up the middle to put the lead up to 3-0.

Sacramento (16-27) battled back with a three-spot to tie the game in the fifth. Gorkys Hernandez, Ramiro Pena and Jarrett Parker all collected RBI singles in the inning.

Sounds starter Chris Smith turned in another quality performance. He allowed three runs on eight hits in seven innings. He walked three and struck out four. Over the last nine games, Nashville starters are 6-0 with a 2.08 ERA.

Ryan Brasier bridged the gap between Smith and the walk-off win. The right-handed reliever tossed two scoreless innings to keep the game knotted at 3-3.

Phegley finished 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored, and Ravelo went 3-for-4 in the win.

The four-game series wraps Sunday afternoon at First Tennessee Park. Right-hander Zach Neal (5-1, 2.53) starts for the Sounds against right-hander Chris Stratton (4-4, 6.60) for the River Cats. First pitch is scheduled for 1:05 p.m.

Freddie Freeman and Nick Markakis extended an unexpected power surge as they combined to record three home runs that backed Matt Wisler’s strong start and helped the Braves claim Friday night’s 7-1 win over the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park.

Freeman drilled a two-run shot off Aaron Nola in the third inning and added another in the ninth inning against Brett Oberholtzer to complete the seventh multi-homer game of his career and his first multi-RBI game of the season. Markakis also hit a two-run shot in the seventh inning, during which Nola was dinged for three unearned runs. The Braves have hit nine home runs over their past five games, equalling what they had totaled over the 36 games played before Monday.
“That’s good to see, Freddie getting hot, and Nick swung the bat really well tonight,” Braves interim manager Brian Snitker said. “Matt Wisler was really good. He had a little trouble at the beginning of the ballgame, but he settled in. It’s fun watching him. He did a really good job.”
The Braves have hit nine home runs over their past five games, equaling what they had totaled over the 36 games played before Monday. On the flip side, Nola had not allowed a homer since April 16, and Freeman’s home run in the third inning was the first Nola gave up in 36 innings.
Wisler recovered from the command issues he experienced during the first inning and matched a season-high seven strikeouts while limiting the Phillies to one run over 6 2/3 innings. The Braves have now won three games during each of their past two road trips. They have gone 2-17 at home.
Each of the six homers Freeman had hit before Friday were solo shots. Markakis joined his team’s power barrage when he went the other way with a two-out, two-run homer that followed Gordon Beckham’s RBI single in the seventh inning. Markakis became the fourth Braves player to hit his first home run of the season this week.
“When you look in the room, there might not be a bunch of 20-25-home run hitters, but there’s guys in there capable of doing what we did tonight, and that’s good,” Snitker said. “I told them the other day, if you keep grinding, things will start falling our way, too. You just got to handle that adversity.”
Phillies third baseman Maikel Franco made two errors, doubling his season total. Franco was charged with his first on the first play of the game as Braves leadoff man Ender Inciarte hit a shot down the third-base line. Franco made another gaffe in the seventh inning, allowing Mallex Smith to reach on a two-base error as his throw sailed into the stands. Smith came around to score to put Atlanta ahead, 3-1. Franco was almost charged with a third error in the eighth inning after he bobbled an Erick Aybar grounder, but Aybar was called out at first after a replay review.
After surrendering Ryan Howard’s RBI groundout during a 21-pitch first inning, Wisler made some mechanical adjustments that helped him retire eight of the next nine batters he faced and pitch around a pair of singles in the fourth inning. The right-hander then retired 10 of the final 12 batters he faced, exiting before the start of the eighth inning for the first time in four starts. He has posted a 1.80 ERA over these four starts.
“He’s been pitching great all season long, especially these past few starts where he’s been on top of his game,” Freeman said. “It’s been going well for him, so hopefully it keeps going well.”
Williams Perez will attempt to recreate his recent success against Philadelphia when this three-game series resumes on Saturday at 2:05 p.m. CT. Perez limited the Phillies to two hits over eight innings on May 11.  Thunder Radio will bring you the broadcast of that contest on the Braves Radio Network

Daniel Mengden continued his torrid stretch and delivered seven stellar innings to lead the Nashville Sounds to a 2-1 win over the Sacramento River Cats in front of 5,492 fans Friday night at First Tennessee Park.

It’s the sixth consecutive win for the Sounds who are now three games above .500 at 22-19 and sit in first place in the American South Division. They’ve won eight of their last nine games at home.

Mengden’s last three outings have been seven inning starts. Since being promoted from Double-A Midland on May 2, he has allowed two earned runs in 27 innings. Between Midland and Nashville, he has allowed a total of four earned runs in 50 innings.

He dealt with two base runners in each of the first two innings but used three strikeouts to escape with no damage.

Nashville jumped out to a 1-0 lead when Josh Rodriguez drew a bases loaded walk against Sacramento starter Chris Heston in the second.

In the fourth, Rangel Ravelo boosted the lead to 2-0 when he launched a solo homer to left-center. It was Ravelo’s second home run of the season.

It was more than enough offense for Mengden who retired seven straight in the middle innings before Ryan Lollis started the sixth with a base hit to right field. Two batters later, Mac Williamson lined a double down the left field line that chased Lollis all the way around to cut the deficit to 2-1.

Mengden bounced back and retired the final five batters he faced after the double. He finished his night with back-to-back strikeouts to close the top of the seventh.

Patrick Schuster took over for Mengden in the eighth and delivered a 10-pitch, 1-2-3 inning to preserve the 2-1 lead.

Schuster handed over to J.B. Wendelken in the ninth and the right-hander made quick work of the River Cats. He retired the side in order and pumped a fastball past Mitch Delfino to end it.

Game three of the four-game series is set for Saturday night at First Tennessee Park. Right-hander Chris Smith (2-5, 4.40) starts for the Sounds against left-hander Ty Blach (5-3, 3.57) for the River Cats. First pitch is scheduled for 6:35 p.m.