MIAMI -- Only 56 of the 100 pitches that Marlins starter Eury Pérez fired Saturday were for strikes. The 6-foot-8 right-hander missed arm-side often, worked deep counts, labored through longer innings and saw his pitch count climb.
“He just didn’t really have terrific rhythm,” Marlins manager Clayton McCullough said.
And yet, the hard-throwing 23-year-old still made scoring an arduous task for the opposition.
Pérez allowed one earned run and three hits in five innings, and the Marlins beat the Nationals 4-2 at loanDepot park.
“I was competing out there with what I had,” Pérez said via team interpreter Luis Dorante Jr. “Some of the pitches were not landing exactly what I wanted. I’m thankful I was competing out there, keeping the ball on the ground. I will say that the most important part is [that] at the end of the day, we end up winning the game.”
“Eury’s come a long way,” McCullough said. “I think we’re talking about it differently now on those kinds of days where it’s a little more scattered -- he’s still tough to hit. And keeping the ball in the ballpark now at a much different rate than he ever has in his career. He’s still able to go five innings even on a day we could all see he certainly wasn’t his sharpest.”
Pérez entered Saturday having made back-to-back scoreless starts with a 1.80 ERA over his last 10 outings -- seven of them quality starts -- since coming off the injured list June 24. He missed nearly a month due to an inner thigh strain.
He’s now set career highs in starts (23) and innings pitched (127 2/3) this season.
“I’m very happy with the outcome of this season,” Pérez said. “I’m thankful God has been keeping me healthy. It’s just a matter of continuing to work with the situations when I have runners on the bases and pushing through every game. And I will continue to get better, work on that arm, stay healthy and improve that strength through the season.”
It was fitting that Pérez and left fielder Heriberto Hernández, who went 1-for-3 with a home run and a run scored, played key roles in Saturday’s win, which improved the Marlins’ home record to 40-25. Both are from the Dominican Republic, and the Marlins designated Saturday as their Dominican Heritage Celebration.
Miami became the fourth team in the Majors to reach 40 home wins this season, and did so for the first time since the 2023 club set a loanDepot park record with 46.
“It felt good having them out there,” Hernández said. “It felt like back home.”
Unlike Friday’s 3-2 win to begin their six-game homestand -- when the Marlins scored their runs in the final two innings -- they generated offense early Saturday, building a 3-0 lead over the first two frames.
Otto Lopez brought home Griffin Conine and Owen Caissie with a first-inning single that appeared to graze Dylan Crews’ glove as he dove for it in right field. Hernández then led off the second inning by belting Jake Irvin’s 93-mph fastball, a Statcast-projected 393 feet to left field.
Hernández’s team-leading 19th home run had a 109.2 mph exit velocity.
“Once I hit it, I knew it was gone,” Hernández said via Dorante Jr. “Every day, I want to get better and improve. I don’t remember what happened yesterday since I came from Triple-A. I’ve just been making good contact with the ball. It feels good.
That was more than enough run support for Pérez to work with. Regularly touching 99 mph with his four-seam fastball, he didn’t allow a hit until José Tena’s infield single in the fourth inning. A throwing error by Lopez allowed Abimelec Ortiz to score an unearned run, ending Pérez’s scoreless innings streak at 16.
The Marlins extended their lead to 4-1 in the fourth as Jakob Marsee led off with a Statcast-projected 379-foot homer to right.
The Nationals answered in the fifth, cutting the deficit to 4-2 on Crews’ two-out double.
Esteury Ruiz appeared to make a stellar diving catch on the play, but the ball shot out of his glove as he crashed to the turf. Ruiz grabbed his left wrist in pain, had it looked at briefly on the field and stayed in the game. Two pitches later, Pérez got Brady House to fly out.
“You’re going to have grindy efforts like this throughout the season,” McCullough said of Pérez. “And for him to be able to do that and still suppress runs is a really good sign.”