WASHINGTON -- Eury Pérez was a picture of calm and joy on Sunday morning.
The 22-year-old sat in a lounge chair in the visiting clubhouse at Nationals Park, surrounded by a few of his fellow Latin pitchers (Sandy Alcantara, Ronny Henriquez and Edward Cabrera), playing cards as his laugh echoed off the lockers nearby.
Mere hours later, Pérez took the field for his second start of the season -- and his second start since undergoing Tommy John surgery in April 2024.
Backed by some early offense -- including a second-inning solo homer from Dane Myers -- Pérez went four innings on 79 pitches (52 strikes) in the Marlins' 3-1 win vs. the Nationals to earn their first three-game sweep of the season.
“We were able to do a variety of things,” manager Clayton McCullough said. “Offensively, really for the whole three days here, we swung the bats very well. Like, the quality of contact was good. … I thought we played more complete games here than we have, and that’s what it takes to win.”
It will take some time for Pérez to get back to his 2023 self, when he first made the Majors straight from Double-A as a 20-year-old and looked like a future All-Star, posting a 3.15 ERA over 19 starts.
Pérez was hit around a bit in his first start of 2025 on Monday, when he gave up four runs on four hits and two walks over three innings vs. the Pirates. But he rebounded well on Sunday, efficiently navigating around the Nationals’ equally young lineup while allowing just one run -- which came in the first inning after a leadoff walk came around to score following a double and an RBI groundout -- on four hits and three walks with no strikeouts.
“His fastball was pretty hoppy,” said Nats shortstop CJ Abrams, who hit that first-inning double, then flied out in the third vs. Pérez. “I kept swinging under myself, missing that pitch to hit and I paid for it.”
“[We knew Eury] was going to be somewhere in that 80-85 pitch mark,” McCullough said. “So I think that the big thing for me today that was so encouraging was that third inning, when they got some traffic right away. First and second, nobody out -- which was a little similar to Pittsburgh the other day -- but this time, the ability to, you know, he got a flyout from Abrams, he was able to pitch himself out of that scenario there and not give up a run, which is a good step for him.”
Through just two starts though, Pérez has done well. No hitters have barrelled any of his pitches thus far (through seven innings, so a small sample size), and his fastball velocity -- though not yet qualified -- is among the top 2% of the Majors.
“His fastball was really good,” Nats manager Dave Martinez said. “But to see him come back after Tommy John and throw 97, 98, breaking ball was sharp, he threw the ball well. I thought we did a pretty decent job of hitting the baseball, but he kept the ball down for the most part and, like I said, the breaking ball was sharp.”
As Pérez works to get back to his lights-out stuff and build up his stamina on the mound, he’ll also look to iron out any wrinkles that emerge. That includes a focus on his secondary pitches. Pérez attributed the Nationals’ 24 foul balls vs. him on Sunday in part to failing to finish off batters with his secondary pitches: almost half of those fouls came on his secondary stuff (aka, not on his four-seam fastball).
“The secondary pitches, I … was not finishing the at-bat,” Pérez said via team interpreter Luis Dorante Jr. “So I think that was one of the reasons. So I have to make the adjustments there, just trying to make sure I can finish each at-bat and not get as many foul balls. And I think that was one of the reasons I didn’t go out for the fifth.”
“A lot of the foul balls, some of the deeper counts I think just kind of chewed up into some of that pitch count, which cut it short a little bit,” McCullough said. “But he competed great. For the most part, his throws were better today. And I think he’ll just continue to keep getting better as he gets more and more outings under his belt.”
As he builds up his pitch count and works deeper into games, and as he hammers out the kinks in his stuff, Pérez has one goal above all the rest: Remain healthy and help his team win.
“It’s a lot of goals,” Pérez said. “But I just want to stay healthy, continue with God’s plan and try to help the team win a lot of games.”