Eury Perez was heading towards perfection.
The Marlins were in Sacramento facing the Athletics on Sunday, and Perez recorded seven perfect innings on 92 pitches. He retired all 21 batters he faced before being pulled to begin the eighth inning.
A’s fans chanted “Shame!” at the team as they came in to remove Perez.
His replacement, Lake Bachar, gave up a leadoff walk in the eighth and a single to end the perfect game and no-hitter almost instantly. Bachar would give up five earned runs on four hits before Michael Petersen came in to try and stop the bleeding.
For the ninth, Pete Fairbanks got the ball. He gave up three runs of his own, and the Marlins nearly blew the 9-0 lead they had held all afternoon.
Perez, who was making only his third start since returning from the injured list, was a mere six outs away from securing the first perfect game in franchise history.
“There was a part of my heartstrings pulling at his opportunity to keep on going, but I have to think about Eury and our organization, our team and what’s best moving forward to give us a chance to continue winning games,” Marlins manager Clayton McCullough said postgame.
“Going into this game, 90-plus was the pitch count, but…us looking to play beyond the regular season, Eury’s going to be an important part of that. He had it really going today,” McCullough continued.
The possibility of seeing the Marlins in October doesn’t seem that far-fetched these days. They’ve won nine of 12 overall, including the weekend sweep of the Athletics. They are in a statistical tie for the final wild-card spot. All-Star shortstop Otto Lopez, who homered in Sunday’s thriller, was named the NL Player of the Week.
