Perez aims to conquer the Giants and road struggles Saturday. Can the young ace's boosted velocity and strong bullpen secure a crucial win?
Miami Marlins right-handed pitcher Eury Pérez will make his first career start against the San Francisco Giants on Saturday. The 23-year-old has a 3.13 ERA in six career starts against National League West opponents.
Pérez is coming off a bounce-back start, earning his second win of the season at home against the Milwaukee Brewers on April 19. He went six innings having allowed only one run (unearned) on three hits with seven strikeouts. It was his first start of the season without allowing an earned run.
Pérez will be looking for better results away from loanDepot park. In 24 career outings on the road, Pérez has gone 6-8 with a 5.09 ERA (60 ER) and 1.25 WHIP over 106.0 innings. In comparison, Pérez has a 2.45 ERA and 0.98 WHIP through the same number of innings over 20 career home starts.
There’s still a belief among the Marlins that 2026 will shape up to be Pérez’s best season yet. Pérez returned from missing 2024 with an injury to log 20 starts last year for the first time in his career. He’s currently a quarter of the way towards surpassing that number this year. Even with 2 1/2 seasons of work under his belt, Pérez is still the second-youngest starting pitcher in baseball this season.
Another reason to be encouraged by the “Baby Goat” this year is the increase in his velocity. Last year, Pérez’s 97.9 mph Fastball Velocity ranked him in the 94th percentile., per Baseball Savant. His average fastball this season has climbed to 98.2 mph. Pérez is using his four-seam fastball 52.3% of the time and the pitch is generating a 26.0 whiff percentage.
Pérez will have a good bullpen behind him in San Francisco. Marlins relievers continue to lead the Majors with the fewest hits (56) and home runs allowed (5), while pacing rival bullpens with a .175 opponent's AVG (56x319) through 26 games. The Miami bullpen also leads the big leagues in strikeouts per nine innings (10.98), per FanGraphs.
The Marlins and Giants will play both Saturday and Sunday at 1:05 p.m. PT, which seems to bode well for the Fightin’ Fish. The Marlins are 7-4 in day games this season, which ties them for fourth-most in the Majors.
The solar-powered offense is averaging 4.5 runs and 8.5 hits per day game this season. Outfielder Owen Caissie leads the big leagues with 10 RBI in day games while slashing .333/.333/.611 in 36 at-bats. Shortstop Otto Lopez leads the Marlins in batting average (.350) while cracking the MLB top ten in runs scored (10).
Overall, Lopez and second baseman Xavier Edwards enter Saturday’s contest with the sixth-highest (.330) and highest (.347) batting averages in the National League respectively.
The Marlins enter Saturday’s game as slight favorites, according to Hard Rock Bet (-105).
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