Fastball pops, but not much else goes right for Pérez vs. Yankees

NEW YORK -- What a difference six days make.

In his season debut last Saturday, Marlins right-hander Eury Pérez had a quality start against the Rockies, throwing seven innings, allowing three runs and striking out eight batters. On Friday afternoon at Yankee Stadium, Pérez had a tough time throwing strikes in an 8-2 loss to the Yankees.

On Friday, Pérez’s fastball was clocked as high as 100.2 miles per hour and he had a game-high 11 swings and misses.

Problem was, he had issues locating his secondary pitches like his slider, changeup and curveball. Pérez ended up walking six batters and had thrown 84 pitches by the time he left the game after four innings.

“He got into some really bad counts against a very disciplined offense, guys with a lot of pedigrees with the ability to control the strike zone,” Marlins manager Clayton McCullough said. “He fell behind way too many counts.”

After Miami gave him a 1-0 lead on a first-inning homer by Xavier Edwards, Pérez found himself in trouble in the bottom of the inning. After walking Trent Grisham, Aaron Judge came to the plate and crushed a 1-1 slider into the left-field seats to give New York a one-run lead.

The next inning was just as bad for Pérez, who threw 36 pitches and allowed two more runs. It didn’t help that he walked four and hit Judge with a pitch that allowed a run to score.

Pérez acknowledged that he had problems with the cold weather and attacking the hitters by trying to get first-pitch strikes. The gametime temperature was 58 degrees and partly cloudy.

"It’s not an excuse,” Pérez said through Marlins interpreter Louis Dorante Jr. “I was trying to put the ball in there at a different location and [the Yankees] were taking pitches. Their plate discipline is pretty good. I was trying to compete as much as I could.

"The fastball was incredible today and that helped me get out of innings. The secondary pitches, there was something with the location [of those pitches]. I was missing something there. I was trying to locate it and [they] were running away too much. [The Yankees] took really good pitches and that really affected me.”

Pérez wasn’t the only Marlins hurler having problems throwing strikes. By the time the game ended, a total of four pitchers -- including Tyler Phillips, Michael Petersen and Lake Bachar -- walked a combined 11 hitters.

"We were probably fortunate to be … in the game with the amount of free passes that we gave [the Yankees],” McCullough said. “Ultimately, you put yourself behind the 8-ball. They came through with a couple of people [on base] late in the game to put it out of reach. It wasn’t a struggle for us before today, but today it just was.”

Entering Friday’s action, the Marlins lineup led all of baseball with an .847 OPS. But the bats were quiet against Yankees right-hander Will Warren. After the homer to Edwards, Warren retired the next 12 hitters before allowing another bomb to Owen Caissie.

"We probably helped Warren a little bit by swinging early in counts,” Edwards acknowledged. “We didn’t drive his pitch count up high enough. It allowed him to stay in the game until the sixth inning.”