CHICAGO - Eury Pérez had spent his professional life doing one thing from the mound: starting games. Tuesday night at Wrigley Field gave him something different, and the Marlins right-hander handled it with authority.
Pérez came out of the bullpen and struck out the side in the eighth inning, helping Miami hang on before rolling to an 8-2 win over the Cubs in 12 innings. The result kept Chicago from clinching a postseason berth for at least another game.
“It was way more uncomfortable when it’s not your home stadium,” Pérez said via interpreter Luis Dorante. “I came from the bullpen and my legs were shaky.
The emotions. I didn’t want to make a mistake.
I wanted to maintain the game tied. At the end of the day, we were able to do it.”
For Pérez, the appearance was a first in a career built almost entirely on starting. He had made 55 starts in the Minor Leagues and another 67 in the Majors, but never had he been asked to enter in relief until now.
Manager Clayton McCullough had floated the idea over the weekend, after Pérez threw 97 pitches in Saturday’s game in San Diego. The original plan on Tuesday was for Pérez to pitch the ninth if Miami led or if the game was tied. Instead, McCullough went to him in the eighth with the score level at 2, after Calvin Faucher and Michael Petersen had already been used.
Pérez needed just 14 pitches to carve through the Cubs lineup. He got Ian Happ swinging at a changeup, froze Nico Hoerner on a 100 mph four-seamer, then finished the frame by getting Pedro Ramírez to swing through another changeup. Eleven of his 14 pitches went for strikes.
McCullough sees the outing as more than a one-night curiosity.
“I hope it's just a reminder for him,” McCullough said. “This is how good he is.
Yes, it's one inning tonight, but bottle up that, and now you take that over five, six, seven innings. We've seen what he's capable of, and just trying to get back to that version.”
He also made clear this is not meant to become a regular routine for starters every turn through the rotation. McCullough said it would be more of an occasional tool, maybe four times a year, depending on the situation.
“This is something that is a potential at various times, and him now having the experience of having done that, I think it's a great developmental piece for him, too, to take on something different,” McCullough said. “Also, looking down the road, if this is something that we explore further, he and us can draw from this.”
Pérez was not the only Marlins starter to dabble in relief lately. Sandy Alcantara did it last Wednesday in Arizona and picked up the first save of his career just two days after throwing 101 pitches.
Janson Junk also made the move earlier this month, and he was the one who set the tone Tuesday by tossing five scoreless innings and allowing only two hits. It was his first scoreless start since April 28, and he struck out six while walking one, his highest strikeout total since July 26.
Junk also became the first of Miami’s starting trio to work late out of the bullpen over the past month, when he threw the eighth inning in a combined shutout over the Red Sox on Aug. 26 because the bullpen was short.
“I bounced back pretty good,” Junk said. “I felt really good going into that next game.
I didn't know Eury was out there today. With Sandy's, I knew that it was a possibility, and that was cool to see.
I was doing my arm care post-throwing and I saw Eury out there. I was pretty shocked by it, but it was cool to see him get three strikeouts right there, get that confidence that he can do that, because it's a totally different mentality going in there at that part of the game.
To harness it and control it, good for Eury to be able to do that.”
Pérez is scheduled to make his final start of the season on Friday against the Braves at loanDepot park, and the clubhouse chatter has already started to shift toward which starter might be next.
“Maybe Sandy will go tomorrow?” Pérez said.
“Maybe it’s another chance for another starter. He was teasing me after the inning, he was telling me, ‘This is our new closer now.
You don’t have to start any more games.’”
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