Pérez rewards Marlins' faith with 6 scoreless innings

SEATTLE -- Marlins top prospect Eury Pérez sat down in the dugout following his fifth inning Wednesday and saw 79 pitches on the scoreboard next to his name. As has become habit, Pérez kept looking at manager Skip Schumaker, making sure he wasn’t going to walk toward him and say he was done.

“I felt like there weren’t too many stressful innings,” said Schumaker, whose club is closely monitoring Pérez’s pitches and innings. “[Pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr.] and I kind of looked at each other, and I just said, ‘We're going to give it to him.’ And he was all for it. I think if there were stressful innings in between, I probably would hesitate. A lot of good defense behind him allowed that to happen, and credit to him some quicker innings than maybe the last couple starts.”

Pérez took advantage of the decision by completing a career-high six scoreless innings in a 4-1 victory over the Mariners at T-Mobile Park.

With Pérez facing the top of the order in the sixth, Schumaker planned to go hitter by hitter. The most pitches Schumaker was going to allow the 20-year-old prodigy to throw was 95, and he retired J.P. Crawford (strikeout), Julio Rodríguez (lineout to left) and Ty France (groundout to third) with two pitches to spare.

“When he gave me the chance, I went out there, sixth inning, gave all I’ve got, try to get as many outs really quick and get that inning,” Pérez said via interpreter Luis Dorante Jr.

MLB Pipeline’s top pitching prospect was economical with his pitches, something that didn’t seem likely when Crawford led off the first with a walk. But Pérez’s defense helped him out, as Jonathan Davis made a pair of jumping catches at the wall to rob Teoscar Hernández in the first and Eugenio Suárez in the fifth.

• Grand catch: Marlins' Sánchez robs Suárez of game-tying slam

Pérez permitted just two hits -- both doubles -- and buckled down to avoid any damage. With two outs in the fourth, Seattle collected its first hit on Hernández’s two-bagger before Jarred Kelenic struck out. Cal Raleigh doubled with one out in the fifth, but Pérez struck out Mike Ford, who went deep twice on Tuesday, and induced a José Caballero flyout to right.

“Their young starter is probably one of the best young starters in the game, and the youngest starter in the big leagues,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “Obviously, good stuff. I thought we had some really good swings at him at times -- just a foot here, a foot there and it's a little bit of a different ballgame."

The game plan called for Pérez, who needed 17 or fewer pitches in each of the first four innings until a 20-pitch fifth, to lean heavily on his four-seam fastball. Miami made the adjustment after Seattle raked against breaking stuff the first two games of the series. Both hits came on his four-seamer, which averages a 97.4 mph velocity -- fourth best among MLB starting pitchers this season (min. 200), behind Jacob deGrom (98.7), Hunter Greene (98.6) and mentor Sandy Alcantara (97.8).

Over his last four starts, Pérez has given up one run in 21 innings for a 0.43 ERA. He has limited opponents to three or fewer earned runs in each of his first seven MLB starts, becoming the first pitcher in franchise history to do so since Zach Thompson in 2021.

“I'm enjoying every single moment, every game and every success that I'm having on this level,” Pérez said. “I'm just going to enjoy it. Continue playing hard and keep attacking.”