Eury Perez bounces back but Marlins can’t sweep Cardinals. Takeaways from the loss
The sweep wasn’t meant to be.
After winning the first three games of the series, the Miami Marlins dropped the series finale against the St. Louis Cardinals 3-0 on Thursday at loanDepot park. Nolan Arenado opened scoring with solo home run in the sixth inning and the Cardinals tacked on insurance runs on an Alec Burleson RBI single in the seventh and a Nolan Gorman RBI double in the eighth.
The Marlins fall to 51-38. The Cardinals improve to 36-51.
Miami won the first three games of the series 5-4 on Monday, 15-2 on Tuesday and 10-9 in walk-off fashion on Wednesday. A win on Thursday would have marked Miami’s first-ever sweep of St. Louis in a four-game series and the first in a series of at least three games since Aug. 27-29, 1996.
Thursday was just the sixth time the Marlins were shut out this season.
Here are three takeaways from the game.
Eury Perez’s bounceback performance
The Marlins were hoping for a bounceback performance from 20-year-old right-handed pitcher Eury Perez following the worst performance of his young MLB career — a seven-hit, six-run shelling over just 1/3 of an inning against the Atlanta Braves on Saturday.
Consider Thursday’s outing, Perez’s final before the All-Star Break, a return to form.
He pitched six innings for the fourth time in five starts, with the Braves start being the lone outlier. He gave up just one run — the Arenado home run with two outs in the sixth — and scattered two other hits and two walks while striking out seven. Perez induced 15 whiffs on 46 Cardinals swings, including 10 on 24 swings against his slider.
Through 11 MLB starts, Perez has a 2.36 ERA and 61 strikeouts against 17 walks over 53 1/3 innings.
Missed chances on offense
The Marlins on Thursday had nine hits and two walks.
A lot of traffic. No runs.
Miami went just 1 for 10 with runners in scoring position, including 0 for 2 with the bases loaded. They had the leadoff batter reach base in four of the first five innings, including leadoff doubles to start the fourth and fifth innings to no avail.
Compare that to the first three games of the series, when the Marlins were 18 for 39 with runners in scoring position.
One more series before the All-Star Break
The Marlins cap their schedule ahead of the All-Star Break with a three-game series against the Philadelphia Phillies.
It’s just the second time this season Miami and Philadelphia have met this season. The Marlins took two of three games against the Phillies in Philadelphia April 10-12.
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