Marlins right-hander Eury Perez will try to end his five-start losing streak when Miami hosts the New York Mets on Friday in the opener of a three-game series.
The teams are battling for last place in the National League East.
The Marlins lost the final three contests in a four-game series against the Atlanta Braves this week, and they have dropped 12 of their past 18.
“We’ll just come out (Friday) and get ourselves ready for a new series,” Miami manager Clayton McCullough said. “You know things will turn. When? I don’t know, but we’ll hang in there and be OK.”
The Mets defeated the Washington Nationals 2-1 on Thursday to salvage a split of a four-game series. New York has won 11 of its past 17.
Perez (2-6, 5.33 ERA) will face off against New York’s Tobias Myers (0-1, 3.41) in the first series of the season between the two teams.
Perez earned his latest victory on April 19. Since then, he pitched at least five innings in all five starts but fell in each while compiling a 6.49 ERA during that span. On Sunday at Tampa Bay, Perez threw five innings and allowed five runs on five hits, two of them homers, with four walks and five strikeouts.
“I think we just saw the inconsistency with the strike-throwing,” McCullough said afterward. “He worked hard for 15 outs and the pitch count really got driven up. Just the inability to consistency to fill up the zone. The big inning right now seems to get going a little bit, and a crooked number gets put up.”
Perez has never beaten the Mets, going 0-3 against them with a 10.00 ERA in three career starts.
Myers is set start for the second time this year while making his 17th appearance. He served as an opener on April 19 against the Chicago Cubs and delivered two scoreless innings in a game the Mets lost 2-1 in 10 innings.
In his latest outing, Myers blew a lead in the eighth inning against the Nationals on Monday, and Washington went on to win 16-7 in 12 innings.
Myers has split his major league career between the rotation (32 starts) and the bullpen (33 relief outings) while pitching for the Milwaukee Brewers the previous two years and the Mets this year. He owns an 8-7 mark with a 3.43 ERA as a starter.
The 27-year-old right-hander has pitched well against the Marlins, going 1-0 with a 1.50 ERA in three games (one start).
Myers will hope to get some support from teammate Bo Bichette, who has been on an offensive tear. The shortstop drove in nine runs during the four games against Washington — one-third of his season total — while going 7-for-18 with three homers. That surge raised his batting average from .210 to .225.
“I don’t know if you ever find it,” Bichette said. “I just got some pitches I can handle and I hit them.”
New York’s Juan Soto finished hitless on Thursday, but is 12-for-31 (.387) with five homers and nine RBIs in his past eight games.
–Field Level Media
