How one start changed everything for Eury Pérez

MIAMI, FL - For the fourth time this season, Miami Marlins starting pitcher Eury Pérez completed seven innings of work and tossed his fifth scoreless outing of the campaign. The Marlins offense gave Pérez just enough run support as they defeated the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates, 2-0. This marks the Marlins eleventh shutout of the season.

It was the start against the Tampa Bay Rays on May 17th, Pérez admitted to reporters, that marked the turning point. During that start, he was crying and was extremely frustrated.

"That's when everything changed for me," Pérez said following the game. "My mentality changed in terms of how I think during a game as well as my emotions. I want to enjoy the games I pitch in. I had a conversation with my pitching coaches over the work that we have to do with my pitches and we decided to also add the sinker, a pitch that has helped me a lot during this time. Now, I am enjoying the games and things are going well."

Since that start against the Rays, Pérez owns a 2.04 ERA and 2.51 FIP in the 10 starts that followed. That span included his last outing against the Atlanta Braves, where he allowed four earned runs in five innings of work. He bounced back Tuesday against a Pirates team fighting for their playoff lives, shutting them out in seven innings, allowing three hits, one walk and striking out seven.

The 23-year-old starter now owns a 3.39 ERA, 3.68 FIP, 9.87 K/9 and 3.39 BB/9 in 21 starts this season. The seven innings pitched tonight match his career high, a feat he's achieved four times now in 2026.

Between Pérez and his close friend Sandy Alcantara, they have combined for 12 quality starts within their last 14 combined starts.

"He just has a much more diverse mix now," Marlins manager Clayton McCullough said. "We're seeing how well he's attacking and the ability to change speeds now, it's just a really tough at-bat. You coupe that with how well he's filling up the strike zone and accessing it with multiple offerings, it's just a tough at-bat right now when he's able to strike with that type of stuff."

Nobody could've imaged that when the Marlins acquired Esteury Ruiz from the Los Angeles Dodgers in exchange for pitching prospect Adriano Marrero that he would turn into a player who has a 144 wRC+ in 76 games played with the team. In the bottom of the third inning, he took Pirates starter Paul Skenes deep for his career-best sixth home run of the season.

Ruiz by no means is a power hitter, but the power certainly has been something that is a cherry on top of his already plus base running, speed, and approach at the plate.

"There's bat speed in there and he's really twitchy," McCullough said. "He's hit some homers in the upper levels of the minor leagues and just hadn't translated as much here at the Major League level, but he can impact the ball, he pulls it in the air and it comes off well. Once he gets ahold of one, they definitely leave a doubt. Didn't think that power was going to be his calling card, but we're not surprised the way that he is capable of impacting baseball when he's on time."

In the ensuing at-bat, Skenes hit Ruiz on the first pitch and he then stole his 28th base of the season and scored the second run of the game.

Ruiz is on his fifth organization, but this is where he has finally broken out, posting career-best numbers offensively. When the Marlins acquired Ruiz, they constantly said that they saw something that they could unlock offensively, and so far, that's been the case.

"He's worked really hard to get his swing to where it can handle more pitches," McCullough said. "I think he's always been very good when the ball's down, like his swing really plays well there. He's worked hard with (Pedro Guerrero) to try to give him some ability to combat more of the four-seam flatter pitches above the belt and we saw him get one of those tonight. We thought this is a still a young player that's ubertalented, incredibly athletic, and could be a good place for him to get some opportunity at the Major League level and stay here."

The Marlins improve to 61-59 on the season, three games back of the final National League Wild Card Spot. Janson Junk will take the mound on Wednesday at 6:40 pm EST as the Marlins go for back-to-back series wins.