STL 3, MIA 0: Arenado ruins Eury Pérez's strong outing, potential Marlins sweep

After Eury Pérez was unable even get past the first inning in his last start, he was able to bounce back against the St. Louis Cardinals on Thursday. The Marlins rookie went six innings of work and only gave up one run, but Miami's offense couldn't generate any runs for him as they would drop the series finale.

Pérez, who gave up six earned runs and two home runs in his last start against the Braves, limited a struggling but talented Cardinals team to one run off of three hits. Despite missing a lot of his spots and getting into deep pitch counts, the 20-year-old was able to strike out seven while only walking two.

"I don't know what else to say about the kid," said Miami Marlins manager Skip Schumaker. "Kept up in the game all night long. Matching Flaherty the whole night, pitch to pitch. Fastball, I thought he used the top zone really well tonight, but the slider I thought better, 2-1 slider was at the bottom edge of the zone and he went oppo on it. I mean, I don't know what else you can do with that one to a really good player, so those are gonna happen."

Pérez went slider-heavy, which has been a recent trend for him after using his trusty changeup as his main secondary pitch in the minor leagues. In fact, the changeup is the pitch he has used least often this season for the Fish. Pérez has began using his slider as a putaway pitch. Six of his seven strikeouts came on the slider while only one came on the fastball. His slider has also caused a lot of swing-and-miss action. In total, Eury generated 10 whiffs on the slider, three on the fastball and one on the changeup and curveball. He only threw the changeup nine times tonight.

"Good outing for me," said Eury Pérez following the game. "Bouncing back from that previous one. Pitches were some not liking where I wanted, but you got to continue going out there and trying to stay in the game and try to help the team staying there."

Eury's only mistake came in the sixth inning with two outs. He left a hanging slider to Nolan Arenado who took advantage of it and hit a solo homer to give St. Louis a 1-0 lead. Aside from that, Eury now goes down to a 2.36 ERA, but has given up seven home runs through 53.1 IP.

"I think that at-bat, he was sitting on the slider. On the previous at-bat, we attacked him with that, it worked well, but I think he made a good adjustment on that pitch," said Pérez. "The slider was working well and I was able to get a swing and miss with that pitch."

Final line: 6.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 7 SO, 93 NP

Once Eury's night came to a close, reliever Dylan Floro entered the game and that's when the bats became alive for the Cardinals. Nolan Gorman led the inning with a ground-rule double. After Jordan Walker struck out, Alec Burleson drove in Gorman on an RBI single which extended the Cardinals lead, 2-0.

Following Floro, George Soriano entered the ballgame and gave up an RBI double to Nolan Gorman to drive in Lars Nootbaar who had hit a double when he was up at the plate. St. Louis scored another insurance run, giving them a 3-0 lead.

Despite a bases-loaded opportunity in the bottom of the seventh inning, Miami was unable to get anything going and ended up dropping the final game to the Cardinals. Eury takes the loss and Jack Flaherty wins it.

Game Notes

• The Marlins had averaged 10 runs per game during the previous three games of this series prior to this shutout.
• General manager Kim Ng will be speaking to the media on Friday.
• In the bottom of the seventh inning, Bryan De La Cruz and Willson Contreras had a heated exchange after De La Cruz drew a walk. It could have escalated if not for home plate umpire Ryan Wills stepping in between them.

Next, the Marlins will go head-to-head against the Phillies in what will be a very important series for both teams. This is also the final series before the All-Star break.

Photo: Tony Capobianco - Five Reasons Sports