Rookie Eury Perez extended his streak to 21 consecutive scoreless innings, leading the host Miami Marlins to a 2-0 win over the slumping Pittsburgh Pirates on Sunday afternoon.
The Pirates have lost 12 of their past 13 games.
Perez (5-1) allowed just four hits -- all singles -- and one walk in six innings. He has the longest active scoreless streak in the majors, and he also matched his career high with nine strikeouts, lowering his ERA to 1.34. His ERA after nine starts is the best in Marlins history, beating Dontrelle Willis (2.38).
In June, Perez is 3-0 with a 0.32 ERA.
Nine-hole hitter Jonathan Davis supplied Miami's early offense with a solo home run, just his second dinger of the year. In his career, Davis, 31, has been designated for assignment by the Toronto Blue Jays and New York Yankees. He was taken off the 40-man roster by the Milwaukee Brewers, and he was traded to Miami by the Detroit Tigers in January.
Marlins second baseman Luis Arraez, who leads the majors with a .399 batting average, went 1-for-4. He is hitting .438 for the month of June.
Miami's bullpen had a strong game as Steven Okert, Andrew Nardi and A.J. Puk each pitched a scoreless inning. Puk earned his 11th save.
Pirates starter Johan Oviedo (3-8) turned in a quality start in a tough-luck loss, allowing just one run, six hits and no walks in seven innings. He struck out six batters.
It was his best performance since April 14 against the St. Louis Cardinals, whom he also held to just one run in seven innings.
Pittsburgh threatened in the second as rookie Henry Davis singled and got to third on a Tucupita Marcano walk and a Perez wild pitch. But with runners on second and third and one out, Perez fanned Rodolfo Castro, who looked at a 98-mph fastball, and Austin Hedges, who looked at a fastball clocked at 99.9 mph.
Jonathan Davis got his homer in the third on an Oviedo full-count slider that stayed up in the zone. Davis' blast went 414 feet to left.
Miami made it 2-0 in the eighth on Yuli Gurriel's two-out RBI single that glanced off the left leg of reliever Carmen Mlodzinski.
The Pirates, after that threat in the second inning, never got another runner past first base the rest of the game.
--Field Level Media
Pittsburgh | Miami | |
Johan Oviedo | Player | Eury Perez |
Loss | W/L | Win |
7.0 | IP | 6.0 |
6 | Strikeouts | 9 |
6 | Hits | 4 |
1.29 | ERA | 0.00 |
Pittsburgh | Miami | |
Andrew McCutchen | Player | Bryan De La Cruz |
2 | Hits | 3 |
0 | RBI | 0 |
0 | HR | 0 |
2 | TB | 4 |
.500 | Avg | .750 |
Team | Hits | HR | TB | Avg | LOB | K | RBI | BB | SB | Errors |
Pittsburgh | 5 | 0 | 5 | .156 | 10 | 12 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Miami | 9 | 1 | 14 | .281 | 9 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |