Martin Perez takes no-hitter into sixth as late fill-in for scratched Reynaldo Lopez

What happened

Martin Perez took the mound as a late replacement for Reynaldo Lopez, who was scratched from his scheduled start, and carried a no-hitter through six innings on 59 pitches. Per Mark Bowman on X, Perez was likely notified of his assignment within 90 minutes of first pitch.

That detail — 90 minutes — is worth sitting with for a moment. Most pitchers build their pre-start routine across hours: the long toss, the bullpen session, the mental rehearsal of a lineup card. Perez, reportedly, had the length of a modest afternoon errand to prepare for a major-league start, and then went out and did not allow a hit through six innings.

Why it matters

Late scratches are one of baseball's more quietly chaotic rituals. A starter goes down — for reasons that, as of Bowman's report, have not been publicly detailed — and a replacement has to be located, informed, and warmed up on compressed time. The operational question is always the same: who is available, and how ready can they actually be?

What makes this instance notable is the outcome. A pitcher stepping in under those circumstances and producing a no-hit bid through six frames is not the expected result of a scrambled pregame. It is the kind of performance that tends to generate a very specific question in the press box, which Bowman flagged directly: exactly when did Perez find out?

That question matters beyond curiosity. The answer shapes how the performance is understood — whether Perez had time to study the lineup, whether his bullpen session was abbreviated, whether the no-hit bid was built on preparation or improvisation or some combination of both. Bowman noted that the precise timing would need to be established, framing it as something still to be determined rather than a settled fact.

The numbers

59 pitches through six innings. That is an efficient line by any measure — fewer than 10 pitches per inning on average — and it carries a particular significance in the context of a no-hit bid. Pitch economy in those circumstances matters for two reasons: it keeps the starter in the game long enough for the no-hitter to remain viable, and it signals that Perez was not laboring, not working deep counts, not surviving on escape acts. He was, by the pitch-count evidence, in command.

Whether that efficiency reflected sharp stuff, weak contact, or some combination is not detailed in Bowman's report. What the number does tell you is that Perez was not burning through his workload. A starter who reaches the sixth inning of a no-hitter on 59 pitches has, in theory, left something in reserve — though what the club chose to do with that reserve, and how the game ultimately resolved, is not addressed in the available reporting.

What we don't know yet

Bowman was candid about the gaps. The reason for Lopez's scratch has not been reported. The exact moment Perez was informed of his assignment remains unestablished — Bowman's "likely within 90 minutes" is an estimate, not a verified timeline. And the outcome of the game itself, including whether the no-hit bid survived beyond the sixth inning, is not addressed in Bowman's report.

The nature of Lopez's scratch is also an open question. In general terms, a pitcher can be removed from a scheduled start for any number of reasons — a reported injury, a precautionary decision, a roster or scheduling consideration — and the rules governing pitcher IL placements can shape how a club handles the situation going forward. None of that has been reported in connection with this specific scratch, and attaching any of those frameworks to Lopez's situation without further reporting would be getting well ahead of what is actually known.

What the club knew, when they knew it, and how they communicated it to Perez are all threads that Bowman flagged as still needing to be pulled. The 90-minute window is the working estimate; the precise version is still forthcoming.

What to watch

### When exactly was Perez told?

Bowman identified this as the key outstanding question, and it is the one most likely to be answered in post-game reporting. The precise notification window would reframe the entire performance — a pitcher told well before first pitch is operating in a meaningfully different context than one told on the shortest of short notice, and the distinction matters for how the start is evaluated and discussed.

Beyond the timeline, the status of Reynaldo Lopez is the other thread worth tracking. A scratched starter draws attention not just because of the immediate replacement scramble but because of what it might signal about availability going forward. Whether Lopez's absence is a one-day adjustment or something that requires a roster move is not addressed in the current reporting, and per Bowman's report, no announcement has been made on that front.

And then there is the no-hitter itself — or rather, the question of what happened to it after the sixth inning. Bowman's report captured a moment in progress, not a completed line. The baseball world has a well-established relationship with no-hit bids: they are discussed in real time, tracked with a particular kind of collective breath-holding, and then either celebrated or quietly filed away. Where this one landed is, as of Bowman's reporting, still an open question.

The broader operational picture — how the club manages its rotation in the wake of Lopez's scratch, whether Perez's performance changes any near-term plans, what the next few days look like for both pitchers — is the kind of thing that tends to become clearer in the hours and days after a game. For now, the established facts are these: Lopez was scratched, Perez stepped in on short notice reportedly measured in minutes rather than hours, and through six innings and 59 pitches, not a single hit had been recorded against him. The rest is still being reported.