Despite another Kyle Stowers home run, Marlins fall to Padres

MIAMI, FL—One inning changed the course of the series opener between the Miami Marlins and San Diego Padres. In the top of the second inning, Eury Pérez would surrender two runs, and that proved to be enough for the Padres in their 2-1 win.

Pérez pitched around a Luis Arraez single in the top of the first to keep San Diego off the scoreboard, but things got messier in the next inning. 

He surrendered a leadoff double to Xander Bogaerts, threw a wild pitch, allowing Bogaerts to advance to third and that's when Jackson Merrill drove in the game's first run on an RBI single. Pérez struck out Jake Cronenworth and Jose Iglesias lined out to Xavier Edwards. Throughout this season, retiring the opposing team's ninth hitter has been an issue for the Marlins. Veteran catcher Martín Maldonado continued the trend, smacking a 106.3 mph RBI double down the left field line, driving in Merrill and making it a 2-0 game.

Pérez walked Fernando Tatis Jr. and that's when pitching coach Daniel Moskos made a mound visit to stop the bleeding.

"Agustín (Ramírez) and I had a small conversation given we weren't in agreement on a couple things," said Pérez in Spanish after the game. "Made a couple adjustments to make sure we can keep going competing. We also made some adjustments when it came to which pitches I wanted to throw to him."

Early on in his start, Pérez was heavily reliant on his fastball-heavy. Overall, his fastball generated five whiffs and he used it on four of his five strikeout pitches. However, it was being hit harder than usual with an average exit velocity of 97.6 mph. His slider (used 17% of the time) and sweeper (13%) were leading to more soft contact.

The 22-year-old's control was not as sharp as it had been prior to the All-Star break. He posted a season-low 36.4% first-pitch strike rate.

Pérez went on to give his team five innings of work, allowing five hits, two walks and striking out five. Outside of his second inning, he had a solid outing against a good Padres lineup.

"I thought he really made some nice adjustments the last few innings," said Marlins manager Clayton McCullough. "Had a good heater again. Really happy with some of the breaking balls and secondary stuff he threw tonight. He had some some sweepers in there and he threw some good, hard sliders. I thought his ability to utilize his entire repertoire tonight—and especially as the outing wore on—is a great sign."

The Marlins' lone run of the ballgame came courtesy of the red-hot Kyle Stowers, who hit his 22nd home run of the season off of Padres starter Randy Vásquez. The ball left his bat at 103.2 mph and went 400 feet towards AutoNation Alley in left-center field. It was his sixth homer over the last five games.

After that, the Marlins did out-hit the Padres, but had no runs to show for it, going 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position.

A lot of credit needs to go to the Marlins bullpen, which kept the Padres hitless through four innings. Josh Simpson, who last threw on July 13 against the Orioles, gave the Marlins two innings of work, striking out three. Tyler Phillips went the final two innings of work, striking out one. Phillips' ERA is now down to 3.47 on the season.

With the loss, the Marlins are now 46-53 on the season, 8.5 games back of a National League Wild Card spot.

Edward Cabrera will start against the Padres on Tuesday. He left his previous start with posterior elbow discomfort and underwent an MRI, which came back negative. With the trade deadline approaching next week, this could potentially be his final home start as a member of the Marlins. First pitch is at 6:40 pm.