MIAMI, FLORIDA – MARCH 28: Eury Pérez #39 of the Miami Marlins pitches against the Colorado Rockies in the first inning of the game at loanDepot park on March 28, 2026 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Megan Briggs/Getty Images)
Megan Briggs
Getty Images
Eury Perez brought the heat from the first pitch Saturday. The Miami Marlins’ lanky, 6-8, hopeful ace of the future fired his first four-seam fastball to Jake McCarthy at 98 mph. McCarthy swung right through it. The Colorado Rockies’ right field swung through Perez’s next two heaters as well, those clocking in at 99 and 99.1 mph.
He was just getting warmed up, dialing up four of his 43 fastballs up to 100 mph.
But Perez did more than just throw straight gas in his 2026 debut, the first start of what the 22-year-old hopes will be his first full MLB season.
Perez went seven innings on Saturday, holding the Colorado Rockies to three runs on five hits and a walk while striking out eight.
And the offense made sure Perez’s night ended on a winning note, with Owen Caissie’s RBI single in the eighth inning scored Otto Lopez to lead Miami to a 4-3 win over the Rockies at loanDepot park.
The Marlins (2-0) secured the season-opening series and will go for the sweep on Sunday (1:40 p.m., Marlins.TV).
Saturday was just Perez’s 40th MLB start despite debuting in May 2023. He was limited to just 19 starts his rookie year as the Marlins monitored his innings as a 20-year-old. He missed all the 2024 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery and didn’t make his season debut last season until June because of his rehab, limiting his campaign to 20 starts.
Perez’s raw talent is tantalizing, but proving he can be durable and productive over a full season is the main hurdle he still has to clear.
“This year is going to be very important for me,” Perez said, “because there’s no limits. Higher pitch counts. We’re working to go deeper into the game.”
Added Marlins manager Clayton McCullough: “We don’t have a set innings limit with Eury. We’ll let how he responds throughout the season, how he recovers, and his performance dictate how he goes this year. But this is a chance from his first time, from start to finish, having a full Major League season under his belt. Physically, he came [into the season] in a great spot. He added some really nice weight. He’s stronger now, he’s sturdier, and he had a terrific spring training. He’s really committed to getting better.”
Saturday was a strong start for Perez. It was just the second time he’s completed seven innings at the MLB level, along with his outing at the Baltimore Orioles on July 13 last season.
His relied heavily on his four-seam fastball, but mixed in the rest of his arsenal — the slider (18 times), changeup (10 times), sweeper (nine times), curveball (eight times) and cutter (five times) — to keep opponents off balanced. He generated 17 whiffs on 49 swings.
“There’s a lot of work that we did with my different pitches,” Perez said. “And wait. There’s more to come. I think it’s going to be a very positive season.”
He quickly shook off the little bit of trouble he ran into.
Colorado (0-2) scored all of its runs on two home runs — a 423-foot solo shot by TJ Rumfield in the second off a middle-middle fastball and a 401-foot two-run homer from Ezequiel Tovar in the fourth off a slider that hung a little too high in the lower-third of the strike zone.
Perez retired 10 of the final 12 batters he faced, three by strikeout, after the Tovar home run.
His 93rd and final pitch? a 99.1 mph strikeout.
“I think he got better as the game went on,” catcher Liam Hicks said. “He had that one kind of rough inning — not even rough; he just threw a good first-pitch slider that got hit out of the park. But good for him to be able to move on quick and just keep attacking the zone, filling it up.”
He followed in the footsteps of Marlins ace (and Perez’s MLB mentor) Sandy Alcantara, who threw seven innings of one-run ball in the Marlins’ Opening Day win on Friday.
Alcantara and Perez are the fourth pair of Marlins starters to open a season with back-to-back starts of at least seven innings, joining Josh Beckett and Brad Penny in 2004, Ryan Dempster and A.J. Burnett in 2002, and Kevin Brown and John Burkett in 1996.
“Quality length,” McCullough said. “They both really filled it up and were very efficient.”
And his offense backed up Perez on Saturday.
Hicks drove in Miami’s first three runs on a third-inning sacrifice fly to tie the game at 1-1 and a two-run home run in the fifth to even the game again at 3-3.
Caissie, who had three hits overall, then gave Miami its first lead of the game with his RBI single in the eighth.
Calvin Faucher pitched a scoreless eighth before Pete Fairbanks logged his second save in as many games this season with a shutout ninth.
“I don’t think we’re going to be out of any ball game,” Hick said. “We have a chance up until the final out. The pitching has been unreal. The defense has been really good, like it was last year, and then timely hitting. That’s going to be our identity.”
This story was originally published March 28, 2026 at 6:44 PM.
.JPG)
Miami Herald
Jordan McPherson covers the Miami Hurricanes and Florida Panthers for the Miami Herald. He attended the University of Florida and covered the Gators athletic program for five years before joining the Herald staff in December 2017.