Martín Pérez struggles vs. Braves in return from injured list

ATLANTA — Friday was supposed to be Jared Jones’ turn in the rotation, but the Pirates opted to skip it for two reasons. The first was to manage his workload. He’s already only about 40 innings off of his career high and the team would prefer for him to pitch through the end of the season. Some built-in breathers will probably be needed to do that and keep his innings at a reasonable total.

The second was getting Martín Pérez back from the injured list. The team’s veteran lefty had been absent from Major League game action for over a month due to a left groin strain, and his first start back was less than ideal. The Braves racked up six runs, including a five-run third, on eight hits and two walks over four innings against the returning southpaw in a 6-1 Pirates loss at Truist Park Friday.

Pérez appeared to fit the soft-tossing, strike-throwing free agent lefty that had worked for Pittsburgh in recent years — Tyler Anderson, José Quintana and Rich Hill all fit this mold — but things started to turn sour once the calendar turned to May. Pérez has surrendered 27 runs (25 earned) over 26 2/3 innings since the end of April, including allowing nine home runs compared to just one over the first month of the season.

When Pérez is clicking, it’s usually because he’s able to locate and execute his secondary pitches, especially the changeup. He couldn’t do that Friday. After Matt Olson just pulled foul what would have been a two-run shot off the offspeed offering in the first inning, Austin Riley hit a changeup to Pérez’s handside flush to straightaway center for a second-inning homer. With the bases loaded and nobody out in the third, Pérez turned to the changeup again against Marcell Ozuna, but the designated hitter wound up clearing the bases with a double.

“He just left ‘em up,” said manager Derek Shelton. “I think we see when Martín’s effective, he can run the fastball in and then run the changeup off it on the other side. That’s a heavy and really good right-handed hitting lineup. We just left some balls up.”

“They get good swings on that pitch,” said Pérez. “The hitters were ready for it. … That was their approach.

Shelton believed Pérez had to get some rust off after not pitching in a Major League game since May 26, but the pitcher wasn’t looking for an excuse.

“Sometimes you throw the pitch and they’re ready to hit,” Pérez said. “I got a lot of soft contact, and I was throwing good pitches in. They were just on it. That’s the game. That’s what happens when you face good hitters, and these guys can hit the ball.”

While Pérez’s line of six runs on eight hits and two walks over four innings was rough, he only allowed four hard-hit balls in play. He was far from perfect, but it’s not outlandish to see how a similar sinker and cutter execution could yield a much better start with some better batted-ball luck.

The Pirates certainly could use that April version of Pérez again, especially with a stretch of 13 straight games on the docket starting this Tuesday running through the end of the first half of the season. A six-man rotation is a possibility for at least part of that stretch, and even after then, the team needs arms to give breaks for Jones and fellow rookie phenom Paul Skenes.

“The health of our players is the most important thing,” Shelton said pregame about workload management for his young pitchers, “and getting the most of them is what we’ll continue to look at.”

The best way to do that is to have the whole rotation clicking, including veterans like Pérez.