Eury Perez won his first major league game as the host Miami Marlins swept the Washington Nationals with a 5-3 victory on Thursday afternoon.
Perez (1-0) — who debuted as the youngest player in Marlins history at 20 years, 27 days — lasted five innings in his second MLB start, allowing three hits, one walk and one run.
The consensus top-10 MLB prospect struck out six batters and lowered his ERA to 2.79 as the Marlins earned their second three-game sweep of the season. They also swept the Reds last month.
Dylan Floro pitched a scoreless ninth inning to earn his fourth save and second in two games.
Jeimer Candelario led Washington by going 2-for-4 with two RBIs, one homer and one double.
Trevor Williams (1-2) took the loss, allowing three runs on five hits, with one walk.
Bryan De La Cruz extended his hitting streak to 12 games with a solo homer, which opened the scoring for the Marlins in the second. On a 1-2 count, he got a high fastball clocked at 92 mph, driving it 402 feet over the fence in center.
The Marlins made it 2-0 in the third on a pair of opposite-field hits — Xavier Edwards’ double over third base and Jean Segura’s single to right.
Candelario hit a 443-foot bomb in the fourth to cut Washington’s deficit to 2-1. He hit a 3-1 fastball clocked at 95 mph.
Miami padded its lead to 4-1 by getting RBI singles from Edwards in the fourth and Garrett Cooper in the seventh.
Washington cut its deficit to 4-3 in the eighth as one-out singles by Luis Garcia and Lane Thomas set up the rally. The Nationals cashed in with Candelario’s RBI double and ex-Marlins outfielder Corey Dickerson’s run-scoring infield single to third.
But Marlins reliever Huascar Brazoban got out of the jam by inducing Keibert Ruiz to bounce into an inning-ending double play.
Washington again played without DH Joey Meneses, who’s on paternity leave.
–Field Level Media