The Marlins had a perfect game brewing on Sunday. Eury Perez was dealing. Seven innings, zero hits, 92 pitches. In West Sacramento, against the Athletics, the kid looked untouchable. But manager Clayton McCullough went to the mound and took the ball. Perez was done. The decision got booed by the fans at the ballpark — loudly. And then the Marlins bullpen nearly handed the game away.
Miami entered the 8th inning with an 8-0 lead. That cushion vanished fast. Lake Bachar recorded zero outs in the 8th. He gave up four hits, two walks, and five earned runs. Peter Fairbanks came in for damage control and served up two more runs on three hits and a walk. Suddenly an 8-0 game was 8-7. And the Marlins had to scratch out a run in the 9th just to avoid extras — or, worse, a walk-off loss. It was that close to being one of the ugliest blown leads you’ll see all season.
The whole thing sparked a real conversation about protecting young arms versus chasing history. Perez has never thrown more than 102 pitches in a big league game. He missed time this year with an arm issue. The Marlins are fighting for a playoff spot, tied with the Cardinals for the final Wild Card. Would a perfect game have given the team a jolt? Sure. But Ken Rosenthal, reporting on Foul Territory, made it clear he wasn’t bothered by the call.
“I really had no problem with it,” Rosenthal said. “Given Perez’s injury history and his importance to the Marlins, this guy has been red-hot as of late since coming off the injured list. I can understand where they were coming from. At this point in the season, I had no problem with it.”
The Bullpen Problem Won’t Go Away
This was supposed to be a feel-good win. A young ace dominating, a team riding momentum into a tight wild-card race. Instead, the bullpen turned it into a stress test. Miami’s relief corps has been shaky for weeks, and Sunday was the loudest warning sign yet. Bachar couldn’t record an out. Fairbanks couldn’t hold a 8-run lead. The late innings are becoming a liability, and the schedule isn’t getting easier.
Perez earned the win thanks to that 9th inning insurance run, but the larger issue is obvious. The Marlins can’t keep leaning on a guy coming off an IL stint to throw deep into games. They need the bullpen to hold leads, not just survive them. Rosenthal is right about Perez’s long-term value mattering more than one perfect game. But the way the pen performed? That’s a problem the front office can’t ignore.
Perez is good enough to put himself in this spot again. The Marlins just need the guys behind him to hold up their end.
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