Eury Perez shows potential in MLB debut but Miami Marlins fall to Reds to start series

Eury Perez walked into the Miami Marlins’ clubhouse Friday and found his locker with a No. 39 jersey adorning his name hung up front and center. He took a moment to compose himself, saying a prayer before shedding a few tears.

The moment is here. In just a few short hours, Perez — the 20-year-old, 6-8 right-handed pitcher ranked as the Marlins’ top prospect and the No. 10 overall prospect in baseball — would take the mound at loanDepot park for his MLB debut.

Perez showed plenty of talent on Friday, but the Marlins lost 7-4 to the Cincinnati Reds to start the three-game series. Jake Fraley’s three-run home run in the ninth inning against Dylan Floro was the difference.

The Marlins fall to 19-20 on the season. The Reds improve to 17-21.

Perez’s final line: Two earned runs allowed on four hits and two walks while striking out seven over 4 2/3 innings. The two hits he gave up were solo home runs — Tyler Stephenson in the fourth inning and Fraley in the fifth. He threw 88 pitches, 58 of which landed for strikes and 16 of which were swings and misses. His fastball topped at 99.1 mph.

“He exceeded my expectations,” Marlins catcher Jacob Stallings said. “Just his poise. He didn’t look nervous at all. It was just another game it looked like to him, which is super impressive, especially for a young guy. He went out and did his thing.”

All told, it was a solid outing for Perez, who at 20 years and 27 days old on Friday became the youngest pitcher in Marlins history (previously Jose Fernandez, who was 20 years and 250 days when he made his debut in 2013) and the youngest Dominican-born starting pitcher ever to make his MLB debut.

“Right now,” Perez said, “it’s kind of sinking in. I’m a Major League player and I made my debut.”

For context on Perez’s fast trajectory to his MLB debut...

▪ Marlins manager Skip Schumaker was in the middle of a redshirt year at the University of California Santa Barbara when he was 20, a year away from his breakout college season that led to him being selected in the fifth round of the 2001 MLB Draft.

“I didn’t know what was going to happen [with my baseball career],” Schumaker said. “I was trying to figure out one of my sociology classes. It’s pretty cool to see this [with Perez]. You don’t see it happen too often.”

▪ Sandy Alcantara, the reigning National League Cy Young Award winner who served as Perez’s mentor this offseason and throughout spring training, was in Double A with the Cardinals. Alcantara’s MLB debut came four days before his 22nd birthday.

“He beat me by age,” Alcantara said with a smile pregame.

Now that Perez has made it to the big leagues, the goal is for him to find a way to stay in the big leagues.

The Marlins are going to be cautious with him, understandable considering his high pedigree and the circumstances. While Perez is highly talented, he remains thin on experience. He only made 44 career appearances in the minor leagues. Of those 44 appearances, he completed six innings just four times and never threw more than 90 pitches in any outing.

“This is going to be a situation where we are going to be watching him very closely,” Marlins general manager Kim Ng said, “and monitoring everything that goes on in the game — what his pitch count is, how stressful those pitches have been. It’s going to be an entire group of people making sure that we do the best thing for him.”

Perez, though, isn’t one to lack confidence. Friday was a telling outing that he plans to build on as he moves forward.

“There’s a lot of road ahead of me,” Perez said. “There’s a lot of things to do. With God’s help, I’m going to continue playing MLB baseball.”

After Perez exited the game with the Marlins down 2-1, Miami scored three runs in the fifth and sixth to go up 4-2 before the Reds tied it in the seventh on a Spencer Steer two-run double against Huascar Brazoban and took the lead for good with Fraley’s go-ahead home run in the ninth.

The Marlins scored their runs on a Bryan De La Cruz double in the fourth that drove in Luis Arraez from first base, Joey Wendle making it home on a passed ball in the fifth after reaching third base on a triple, and a pair of solo home runs from Jazz Chisholm Jr. in the fifth and Peyton Burdick in the sixth.