Marlins make home run history, sweep A's in Sacramento

[Jeremiah Geiger]

WEST SACRAMENTO—Eury Pérez was on the cusp of making history. Through seven innings, not a single Athletics hitter reached base against him. The young right-hander was just six outs away from completing the Marlins' first perfect game. But at 92 pitches, manager Clayton McCullough made the decision to pull Pérez from the game. 

In his third start since coming off the injured list, Pérez had a predetermined pitch limit of "90 plus a batter," McCullough said postgame.

"Us looking to play beyond the regular season, Eury's gonna be an important part of that...There was a part of my heartstrings pulling at his opportunity to keep on going, but 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. Made more of a calculated decision with where he was with the pitch count to take him out."

This was without a doubt the best game Pérez has pitched in his career. His command was excellent to both sides of the plate. A's hitters looked helpless, striking out seven times and frequently hitting lazy fly balls and routine grounders when they did make contact.

The 23-year-old said through an interpreter that he understood his pitch limit was "part of the plan" and didn't fight to stay in longer.

Pérez has allowed only three earned runs over his last five starts combined. That has lowered his ERA to a season-best 3.84.

Lake Bachar entered to start the eighth inning, greeted by boos from the fans at Sutter Health Park who wanted to see Pérez pursue perfection. The momentum flipped immediately as Bachar walked Lawrence Butler to lose the perfect game. The next hitter, Joshua Kuroda-Grauer, hit a blooper to right field that fell in for a base hit. No-hitter gone. Bachar then gave up a double and a walk before Jonah Heim crushed a grand slam to right-center. All of a sudden, it was 8-5. 

The Marlins ended up winning the game, 9-8, but it was a strange feeling to have a special performance get overshadowed by the timing of the pitching change. 

 

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The Marlins' bats had been on fire during the first two games at Sutter Health Park, and they didn't let up on Sunday. Every run proved to be important given the bullpen's struggles. 

Heriberto Hernández homered off of Gage Jump in the first inning. Otto Lopez hit an RBI double in the second inning, and Liam Hicks also added a sacrifice fly to make it 3-0. Leo Jiménez got in on the fun in the third with his first homer in a Marlins uniform. Lopez and Hernández went back-to-back in the sixth for an 8-0 lead.

Hicks also singled twice to extend his hitting streak to 16 games. It is the longest active streak in the majors.

The Athletics pitchers just had no answers for this Marlins lineup all weekend. The Marlins hit 12 home runs in Sacramento, the most in franchise history for any three-game series. The team posted a combined slash line of .354/.457/.735 with nearly as many walks (20) as strikeouts (23).

It was a 7-3 road trip for the Fish. Overall, they have a 49-42 record and are guaranteed to be above .500 entering the All-Star break.

Following Monday's off day, they'll begin a six-game homestand to wrap up the first half of the regular season.

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[One Regend]

I was watching the game and just witnessed Lake Bachar lose the perfect game, and then lose the no-hitter almost instantly. I got yanked away from the game, unable to watch the rest of it, and in my head, I was thinking, "Man, it would be so funny if the Marlins ended up losing this game,"

That ALMOST happened. That would've been PEAK Marlins.

I was literally just kidding, and they almost made it happen. Now I have some serious questions about the Marlins bullpen after this past week.

[Jose Herrera]

@One Regend I want Fairbanks to be our closer but we may need to combo him with another high leverage reliever. I would consider seeing what the Red Sox want for Aroldis Chapman, Jarren Duran & Sonny Gray.

[One Regend]

@Jose Herrera

Pete Fairbanks is cooked. I'm sorry. That $13 million was a mistake.

I gave him the benefit of the doubt when he exited a game with a 6.65 ERA by saying they should have him pitch in lower-leverage situations, but high enough where it matters, to see if they can get him back on track. But I don't think the way he's performing suggests he'll be effective in even that role.

Yes, his xERA is nearly 3 full runs lower than his actual ERA, which suggest there's been bad batted ball luck, but we're already at the All-Star break. At this point of the season, you have to stop looking at performance predictors, and start looking at results. Pete Fairbanks just isn't getting his job done, and that's what matters.

If the Marlins want to win, they have to cut bait. They'll have to DFA him and eat his contract, or trade him for an unranked prospect just to get the contract off their hands.

[1993 fan from start]

Thing did seem to change. When one of the A'S pitcher had the crew change the mound.  and the network show Javier Sanoja on the field for first time. There was nothing wrong with mound .  one of the reason I believe Eury was taken out.

Fairbanks may want to change location of his glove a throw lower .  Starting to think no one working with him. cause he look the same.

A's fans or the only ones. I know that let a team spit on them .  Las Vegas A's already  logos..  what is Sacramento cheering for?

The air in CA does not sit right with Lake Bachar.  I know they wanted two inning from him.. I wanted any one else but him at the time.

 

Marlins did pick up a game on phillies and Braves on same day

[THOMAS JOSEPH]

19 hours ago, Jose Herrera said:

@One Regend I want Fairbanks to be our closer but we may need to combo him with another high leverage reliever. I would consider seeing what the Red Sox want for Aroldis Chapman, Jarren Duran & Sonny Gray.

I love your optimism. 

[One Regend]

32 minutes ago, THOMAS JOSEPH said:

I love your optimism. 

I do too, but not for the same reasons.

I'm all for buying at the deadline, but our winning team formula doesn't have Fairbanks on the team. Fairbanks $13 million dollar contract is the only reason why he's still around (he's not around because he's performing well), and is the only reason why William Kempner is still stuck in AAA dominating AAA batters, when he should be dominating MLB batters.

[Jose Herrera]

@THOMAS JOSEPH I'm not saying we do the trade right now, but a player package involving De Los Santos, Garrett, Gus and Marsee would certainly raise their eyebrows.

[One Regend]

Honestly, I'm okay with trading an outfield bat or two. We have a massive surplus of outfielders in our minor league system. I'm sure we could part with one of them to snag a starting pitcher for us down the stretch.

And after seeing Joe Mack play for us? I don't see a lane for Agustin Ramirez to get everyday playing reps. 1B is starting to be a competitive position between Liam Hicks and Kyle Stowers, and C has Joe Mack, with Liam Hicks filling in for Mack's days off. His only lane to getting playtime is DH, and he needs to be an exceptionally good hitter to crack the roster just to be a DH, which he hasn't proven he can be. He could be traded to a team that's well out of the playoffs that would give him a chance to re-establish himself. He has the talent with the bat to pull it off, I just don't see it materializing with the Marlins.

No matter what, though, 3rd Base is a problem. I'm not sure how we could leverage snagging a 3B without giving up our big prospects. We can all agree that Karson Milbrandt, Thomas White, Robby Snelling, and Kemp Alderman is untouchable on the trade market. And Cam Cannarella is creeping towards untouchable status, too. This leaves us with guys like Brandon Compton and Fenwick Trimble as maybe guys we could dangle on the trade market. Starlyn Caba, too. Caba's having a good season right now, but after years of mediocre-to-replacement-level performance, I can't buy this year's success. Perhaps selling high might be the call to make.

[1993 fan from start]

5 hours ago, Jose Herrera said:

@THOMAS JOSEPH I'm not saying we do the trade right now, but a player package involving De Los Santos, Garrett, Gus and Marsee would certainly raise their eyebrows.

not on board Garrett. in that packet trade

[THOMAS JOSEPH]

19 hours ago, Jose Herrera said:

@THOMAS JOSEPH I'm not saying we do the trade right now, but a player package involving De Los Santos, Garrett, Gus and Marsee would certainly raise their eyebrows.

It certainly would. That kind of move isn't beyond Bendix. I think he will try to showcase the possible trade pieces, especially Garrett.