Pérez shines, K's Ohtani as Marlins finish trip with happy flight

ANAHEIM -- The big league initiation of Eury Pérez presented new challenges Sunday, primarily two of baseball’s premiere hitters.

Some challenges are bigger than others. That was the case in the bottom of the fifth, 76 pitches into Pérez’s fourth career start. Two on with two outs and a one-run lead, up stepped Mike Trout.

MLB Pipeline’s top pitching prospect began with a strike low and on the outside corner. The second pitch was in the dirt. The 1-1 offering was away. Trout swung and struck it well, but not well enough. Bryan De La Cruz eased over in left field for the inning-ending catch.

The 20-year-old Pérez slapped his hands together as he walked off the mound with plenty of reason to celebrate. The Marlins have reason to celebrate, as well, with the 2-0 win over the Halos to secure a series sweep.

“Emotions were very high,” Pérez said via team interpreter Luis Dorante Jr. “I was enjoying every single at-bat, every pitch. When Trout was in the box, the ball was running a bit faster. There’s a little extra heat there.”

Allowing two hits over five shutout innings, Pérez delivered his most impressive outing so far, earning his second win. Getting the victory had its own set of difficulties, though.

After using five relievers in the 10-inning victory on Saturday night, manager Skip Schumaker called on five again in this finale of a three-city, 10-game road trip and overcame any exhaustion they may have had.

“They’re on fumes,” Schumaker said. “But you wouldn’t know it by the way they pitched.”

JT Chargois entered for the ninth inning, aiming for his first career save. Like Pérez, a meeting vs. Trout was the final obstacle. With the tying runs in scoring position, Chargois got the three-time AL MVP to hit a soft fly that Luis Arraez tracked down for the final out.

“[Chargois has] got an insane sinker that has a lot of movement along with a wipeout slider,” said Tanner Scott, who threw 16 of his 21 pitches for strikes. “Everyone in our bullpen is fun to watch.”

The encounters Pérez had with the two bold-faced names of the Angels lineup -- Trout and Shohei Ohtani -- underscored his potential. In the first inning, he got Ohtani to strike out swinging on a curveball after being behind in the count, 3-0. It took Pérez only eight pitches to get through the third, highlighted by strikeout of Trout on a 97 mph fastball. Ohtani managed a single to lead off the fourth, but Pérez quickly set down the batters who followed.

Pérez's command began to waver in the fifth, when two walks and a wild pitch put him in danger of giving up his first run of the afternoon. A fielder’s choice kept the inning alive for Trout, but all it did was allow Pérez to display his advanced pitching maturity.

“He got some big outs in big moments against some really great hitters,” Schumaker said. “Getting Trout and Ohtani out are probably the highlights of his early career.”

The superior pitching performances was needed on an afternoon when Marlin bats were relatively quiet, albeit timely.

Miami’s string of four straight games with at least six runs scored came to a halt, as did Jorge Soler’s five consecutive games with a homer.

Soler went 0-for-4 and never really got the ball out of the infield. He was replaced in the eighth for defense.

Instead, it was Nick Fortes who supplied the power. The catcher’s one-out homer to left in the third was part of a three-hit performance to complement his calling of a shutout behind the plate. It was also the game’s only run until the sixth.

With a runner at third and two outs in the sixth, Los Angeles intentionally walked Yuli Gurriel in front of Jean Segura, who boasts a sub-.200 batting average. In the spirit of Michael Jordan, Segura took it personally. He didn't hit the first pitch he saw hard (79.7 mph) but he did hit it in the perfect spot: past first baseman Jared Walsh and into right field. Segura punctuated the two-out RBI single with a bat toss that had hang time comparable to some NFL punts.

“He’s fighting,” Schumaker said. “The care factor is there. He’s not happy about where he’s at. So to get that insurance run for us was huge.”

The flight of Segura’s bat might also symbolize the hopes of the team. Miami countered a rough start to the road trip -- in which it lost five of its first seven games -- to head back to South Florida to host San Diego on Tuesday having split the 10 games away from loanDepot Park.

“You want to try to get to .500 on the road,” Schumaker said. “It didn’t look great after Colorado and San Francisco. But credit to the guys. It’s going to be feel much better going back home.”