Eury Pérez came within six outs of doing something the Marlins have never done before, and even after the chance for perfection slipped away, Miami still left Sacramento with a sweep and a piece of franchise history.
Pérez was brilliant for seven innings at Sutter Health Park, holding the Athletics without a baserunner and carrying a perfect game into the eighth. But at 92 pitches, Clayton McCullough went to the bullpen instead of letting the 23-year-old chase the finish line. McCullough said after the game that Pérez was working under a predetermined limit of " 90 plus a batter."
"Us looking to play beyond the regular season, Eury's gonna be an important part of that...There was a part of my heartstrings pulling at his opportunity to keep on going, but I have to think about Eury, one, and our organization, our team and what's best moving forward to give us a chance to continue to win games. Made more of a calculated decision with where he was with the pitch count to take him out."
Pérez said through an interpreter that he understood the plan and knew the hook was coming. He did not push back.
Even without the finish, it was the best outing of his career. Pérez had the A’s chasing all night, mixing his pitches well and working both sides of the plate.
Oakland managed only weak contact when it didn’t strike out, and Pérez fanned seven. Over his last five starts, he has given up just three earned runs, dropping his ERA to a season-best 3.84.
Then the game turned fast.
Lake Bachar came in to start the eighth and immediately heard boos from the crowd that wanted to see Pérez keep going. The perfect game vanished on a walk to Lawrence Butler.
Joshua Kuroda-Grauer followed with a bloop single to right, ending the no-hit bid as well. Bachar then allowed a double and another walk before Jonah Heim unloaded a grand slam to right-center, suddenly making it 8-5.
The Marlins still closed it out, winning 9-8, but the late collapse made the whole sequence feel even stranger. A historic pitching performance had been overshadowed by the decision to protect the starter’s workload.
Miami’s offense had already done plenty of damage by then, and it kept rolling Sunday after putting up big numbers in the first two games of the series. Heriberto Hernández got things started with a first-inning homer off Gage Jump.
Otto Lopez added an RBI double in the second, and Liam Hicks followed with a sacrifice fly for a 3-0 lead. Leo Jiménez then launched his first homer in a Marlins uniform in the third.
Lopez and Hernández went back-to-back in the sixth to push the margin to 8-0.
Hicks also singled twice, extending his hitting streak to 16 games, the longest active streak in the majors.
By the end of the weekend, the Marlins had hit 12 home runs in Sacramento, the most in franchise history for a three-game series. They finished with a combined .354/.457/.735 slash line and nearly matched their strikeouts (23) with walks (20).
Miami went 7-3 on the road trip and now sits at 49-42, guaranteed to be above .500 entering the All-Star break. After Monday’s off day, the Marlins will open a six-game homestand to finish the first half.
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