After taking three of four against the New York Mets to begin their road trip, the Miami Marlins looked like a completely different team in DC. For the first time in three months, they were swept in a series, trailing the Washington Nationals from start to finish on Wednesday and falling by a final score of 10-5.
Eury Pérez, the Marlins starting pitcher, had been unable to complete the first inning in New York. He did go further into his start this time, but surrendered a career-high seven earned runs. In four innings, Pérez allowed seven runs on eight hits, one walk and struck out two.
Opposing hitters posted an average exit velocity of 98.1 mph off Pérez’s four-seam fastball, which is normally his best pitch. In the bottom of the second inning, he gave up a home run to former Marlins prospect Nasim Nuñez, who had never homered in the big leagues before.
Pérez also gave up an RBI double to Jorge Alfaro and RBI single to Daylen Lile. Despite its ineffectiveness, he used his fastball 50% of the time.
“The command’s not been great,” said manager Clayton McCullough. “He’s behind in too many counts and they took advantage of some pitches that probably weren’t located as well and it’s just part of it. Eury is going to just have to keep his head up, go back to work tomorrow. He’s not the first starter that’s had a couple starts that are tough. It’s more about what you do about it. So fully anticipate that Eury will go right back to work when we get back to Miami and be ready for his next one.”
On the bright side, Joey Wiemer hit his first home run of the season, taking Nationals starter Mitchell Parker deep 403 feet to left field. The ball left the bat at 107.6 mph. It was his major league home run since 2023.
“He’s not too far removed from having a good start to his career in Milwaukee,” McCullough said. “There’s strength there. He’s tough. He’s a great teammate, plays good defense, so nice to see him get some regular at-bats and be able to come through offensively for us and have some nice games here on this road trip. Hopefully that just gives him confidence to take that as we get back home and get ready for the Phillies.”
Heriberto Hernández drove in two more runs in the same inning on a two-run RBI single, making it a 7-4 game. In the eighth inning, a passed ball from Jorge Alfaro allowed Hernández to score Miami’s fifth run.
Nuñez hit his second home run of the game to put the nail in the coffin, giving the Nationals a 10-5 lead, one that they wouldn’t look back on.
The Marlins were most recently swept by the Colorado Rockies from June 2-4, the only NL team with a worst record than the Nats. They’ve now dropped to 65-75 on the season.
The Fish will have an off-day in Miami on Thursday before they welcome the Philadelphia Phillies for a three-game set. There has been no starter announced for what would have been Edward Cabrera’s turn in the rotation. Valente Bellozo is the leading candidate to fill Cabrera’s shoes.