CHICAGO – Marlins right-hander Eury Pérez is used to making the long trip from the bullpen to the mound at the beginning of the game as the crowd is still filtering in and players are finding their footing.
All Pérez has ever known in his professional career, since signing as a teenager out of the Dominican Republic, is starting ballgames. Fifty-five of them, in fact, in the Minor Leagues, and another 67 in the Majors.
Like ace Sandy Alcantara and right-hander Janson Junk before him, Pérez added a relief appearance to his resume in Tuesday night’s 8-2 win over the Cubs in 12 innings at Wrigley Field. With the victory, Miami prevented Chicago from clinching a postseason berth for at least a 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.”
Pérez, who threw 97 pitches in Saturday’s game in San Diego, was approached by manager Clayton McCullough over the weekend about the possibility of pitching in relief on his in-between-starts bullpen day. Pérez’s mentor Alcantara did so last Wednesday in Arizona, where he recorded his first career save just two days after a 101-pitch start.
Tuesday’s initial plan called for Pérez to go out for the ninth if the Marlins were winning or it was a tie game. McCullough pivoted, sending him out there with the Marlins and Cubs tied at 2 in the eighth. Miami’s two most experienced high-leverage relievers – righties Calvin Faucher and Michael Petersen – had already appeared in the game.
Pérez struck out the side on 14 pitches: Ian Happ (swinging, changeup), Nico Hoerner (looking, 100 mph four-seamer) and Pedro Ramírez (swinging, changeup).
Perhaps this turns things around for Pérez, who has a 10.13 ERA and 15 walks in 21 1/3 innings over his last five starts. He attacked the zone on Tuesday, with 11 of 14 strikes.
“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.”
McCullough reiterated that this wouldn’t be something starters would do between every outing next season, rather maybe four times a year. Circumstances and variables would be taken into consideration.
Every win makes a difference regardless of the time of year, and Miami believes this strategy could help the club add a few more victories.
“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 wound up being one of eight relievers to follow Junk, who limited the Cubs to two hits while tossing five innings in his first scoreless start since April 28. He walked one batter and struck out six, his most since July 26.
Junk, as it turns out, is a bit of a trendsetter. Due to a shorthanded bullpen, he pitched the eighth inning in a combined shutout over the Red Sox on Aug. 26. In doing so, he became the first of the Marlins’ starting trio to pitch late out of the bullpen over the past month.
“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.
The banter is picking up among the pitching staff. Bragging rights could soon be on the line.
“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.’”