Full breakdown of Eury Pérez's 2025 debut

[Kevin Barral]

Right-hander Eury Pérez was back on the mound for the Miami Marlins on Monday, making his first start in 628 days. Pérez's season debut coming back from Tommy John surgery lasted only three innings, allowing four runs on four hits, walking two and striking out five against the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Marlins fell by a final score of 10-3.

Pérez's fastball velocity was fully back to where it previously was as a 20-year-old rookie. He averaged 98.5 mph and topped out at 99.7 mph. He touched 99 mph eight times. He generated three whiffs on four-seamers and two of his five strikeouts came on that pitch. However, he struggled with commanding the pitch consistently, overthrowing a bit at times.

Pérez's first strikeout in his return came on the slider (mislabeled a cutter by Statcast), getting Oneil Cruz swinging. He also mixed a new sweeper, which he had told the media he added throughout the rehab process. He threw it 6% of the time and generated one whiff.

In the bottom of the third inning, Pérez surrendered a lead-off walk to catcher Brett Sullivan, base hit to Jared Triolo and then loaded the bases by walking Cruz. Longtime Pirate Andrew McCutchen tied the game at one apiece with an infield RBI single and former future Marlin Bryan Reynolds hit a bases-clearing triple, giving the Pirates a commanding 4-1 lead.

Although Pérez finished the night with a 67% first-pitch strike rate, he was behind the count on the first five hitters he faced in that bottom of the third inning. The Pirates offense took advantage. He threw 39 of his 70 total pitches in the third.

"The pitch count just got elevated and had to work really hard there," said Marlins manager Clayton McCullough following the game. "Got some deep counts and some foul balls. I thought he threw some good sliders. The fastball obviously had good velocity. I think the command will continue to come as he just gets back out there and gets back into the rhythm and into the flow of things. All in all, while he's probably not happy with how things turned out and results, to be back out there again and have the chance to get back on the mound is great for us."

The next outing for Pérez could come against the Washington Nationals this weekend or back in Miami when the Marlins host the Philadelphia Phillies beginning on June 16.

In the bottom of the first inning, Otto Lopez took Pirates starting pitcher Mike Burrows deep for a solo home run, his sixth of the season, tying a career-high. His bat hit the ball at 105.5 mph, sending it 408 feet to left field. It gave the Marlins an early 1-0 lead.

Bad defense was a big reason for the Pirates' production. In the bottom of the sixth, reliever Janson Junk gave up a lead-off double to Spencer Horwitz followed by a base hit to Nick Gonzalez. Adam Frazier drove Horwitz in on an RBI single. What started off as a bunt single from third baseman Ke'Bryan Hayes resulted in two runs due to throwing errors from Connor Norby, and Jesús Sánchez. Hayes got all the way to third base, setting up a sac fly and an additional run.

"I think that was probably the most disappointing part of this," McCullough said. "We didn't handle the ball, threw it around a little bit, gave up some extra bases and some runs that kind of got away from us. We've been on the losing end of some games that have been tight and we've just played at a different standard, and tonight, we didn't."

The second Marlins run came on a Jesús Sánchez sac fly and the third run was on an RBI double from Connor Norby.

With the loss, the Marlins have dropped to 24-40 on the season.

Sandy Alcantara will take the mound on Tuesday as he looks to keep the momentum from his last start going. First pitch is at 6:40 pm.

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[Guest]

Eury's performance last night was like a vintage Edward Cabrera game, the way Cabrera pitched before May of this year. Cabrera seems to have figured it out (just in time for our ******* GM and CHEAP OWNER to trade him at the deadline!) and is no longer having that one inning where he implodes; we'll have to see if Eury can bounce back. He did the worst thing a pitcher can do, walk the leadoff man. After that, he just imploded the way Cabrera used to do, including misplaying what should have been a home to first DP grounder hit right to him. Another walk and a cookie pitch to Marlin killer Brian Reynolds and Eury was done. The marlins pitching coach sucks; he obviously doesn't emphasize LOCATION to his pitchers as can be seen by the number of pitchers who don't know the difference between a good strike and a bad strike. Too many Marlins pitchers think "Throw Strikes!" means throw cookies right down the middle.

[One Regend]

3 hours ago, Alex Ligero said:

Eury's performance last night was like a vintage Edward Cabrera game, the way Cabrera pitched before May of this year. Cabrera seems to have figured it out (just in time for our ******* GM and CHEAP OWNER to trade him at the deadline!) and is no longer having that one inning where he implodes; we'll have to see if Eury can bounce back. He did the worst thing a pitcher can do, walk the leadoff man. After that, he just imploded the way Cabrera used to do, including misplaying what should have been a home to first DP grounder hit right to him. Another walk and a cookie pitch to Marlin killer Brian Reynolds and Eury was done. The marlins pitching coach sucks; he obviously doesn't emphasize LOCATION to his pitchers as can be seen by the number of pitchers who don't know the difference between a good strike and a bad strike. Too many Marlins pitchers think "Throw Strikes!" means throw cookies right down the middle.

I wasn't expecting an instant return to form from Eury Perez in his first start in MLB in over a year, so I am willing to handwave this performance. I do expect better on his next few starts, though.

But you did bring up a good point. I really miss Mel Stottlemyre Jr. I had problems with our pitchers giving up big hits with RISP and 2 outs when he was coaching for us, but I'd rather take that over... whatever the new guy is doing with our pitching. Dear goodness what a downgrade.