WEST SACRAMENTO -- Go for history or consider a potential postseason run?
That is the question Marlins manager Clayton McCullough juggled during Sunday afternoon’s 9-8 victory over the Athletics at Sutter Health Park.
In his third start back from the injured list due to a leg strain, right-hander Eury Pérez flirted with the franchise’s first perfect game by retiring the first 21 batters on 92 pitches. Pérez was the third pitcher since at least 1900 to be pulled from a perfect game of seven innings or more, joining Rich Hill in 2016 and Clayton Kershaw in 2022.
Pérez, who had never thrown more than 102 pitches in a Major League outing, was still firing 97.9 mph in a nine-pitch seventh. But the Marlins had a plan about how far to run him out there and chose to stick with it – no matter how unpopular the decision may have been.
“Us looking to play beyond the regular season, Eury's going to be an important part of that,” McCullough said. “He had it really going today, and I totally get it; and there was a part of my heartstrings pulling at his opportunity to keep on going, but I think 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. So [I] made more of a calculated decision with where he was with the pitch count to take him out.”
Was there any thought of going batter by batter?
“No consideration there,” McCullough said. “90 plus a hitter was the number of pitches I was going to feel comfortable with letting him throw today, and that was going to be what was going to guide the decisions I made with him at any part of the game.”
As right-hander Lake Bachar warmed up in the bullpen, Pérez received hugs and congratulations in the dugout following a career-high-tying seven frames to signal the end of his start.
“When I saw [McCullough] approaching, I knew it was going to be like that, and I told him that I understood, and that this was part of the plan, again,” Pérez said via interpreter Luis Dorante Jr. “I took it in a good way.”
Once A’s fans realized Bachar had the eighth, they released a chorus of boos and continued chanting at the Marlins’ dugout during the remainder of the game after hoping to witness history.
Bachar proceeded to walk leadoff batter Lawrence Butler and permit a bloop single to Joshua Kuroda-Grauer to break up the perfect game and no-hitter, respectively. Three batters later, Miami’s lead shrunk from 8-0 to 8-5 on Jonah Heim’s grand slam.
"I did. I did hear them,” Kuroda-Grauer said on A’s fans' chants after Pérez was pulled. “That’s baseball. You see a guy take a perfect game almost into the eighth inning before he got pulled. They wanted to see him [do it]."
When the sixth straight batter reached against Bachar with no outs, righty Michael Petersen took over and thwarted the A’s momentum. Closer Pete Fairbanks pitched a shaky ninth, allowing three more runs, but ultimately finished out the win.
“I did feel bad, because they're booing the manager, they're booing my teammate,” Pérez said. “It's something that doesn't feel good, but I think they don't know the inside that we know, right? That information, which I'm coming from an injury, we had a plan of 90 pitches and all that. But I'm very proud of my team, and very proud of my manager, mostly the communication that we have. That's very important. The communication that we always have. And then, as I mentioned, we had a plan of 90 pitches.”
The decision can’t take away from how dominant Pérez has been. He struck out eight batters, and the A’s managed just four hard-hit balls and none that came close to being hits. Over his last five starts, he has a 0.99 ERA.
“This is a version of Eury that we've seen trending, and today was, certainly, probably, the best combination of everything together, and his ability being behind in some counts to make a pitch and get people off the barrel,” McCullough said. “That's the exciting part is just prior to the IL stint, and since he's come back, he's filled up the zone at a much better rate. The stuff has been fantastic. So great day for him.”
Miami has a formidable front three with this version of Pérez, the return of ace Sandy Alcantara and first-time All-Star Max Meyer. While Alcantara is the Majors’ innings leader, Pérez and Meyer have injury histories and have either surpassed career workloads or will do so soon.
The Marlins, who set a franchise record for most homers in a three-game series (12), swept the A’s to finish their three-city trip with a 7-3 record. Miami (49-42) also improved to a season-high seven games over .500 (last achieved in September 2023).
“I will say it’s an extra motivation when you see those three [pitchers] out there,” Heriberto Hernández, who went deep twice, said via Dorante. “Those are like the three horses. We’ve got to do a good job out there, perform well offensively and defensively every time they’re out there. It just motivates the whole group to be better.”