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

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. 

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.