Eury Pérez pulled from perfect game after seven innings vs. Athletics, Marlins bullpen immediately loses it

Marlins right-hander Eury Pérez has long had immense upside and he put everything together Sunday afternoon in Sacramento's Sutter Health Park, home of the Athletics. He had a perfect game through seven innings, but history (and a pitch count) was not on his side.

>It was 21 batters up, 21 down for Pérez as he struck out eight and induced seven groundouts. He only gave up hard contact three times (which is defined as balls with an exit velocity of at least 95 miles per hour). Two of those were groundouts and the other was a routine fly ball, so there wasn't really a great scare.

>After Pérez threw 92 pitches, he was lifted by manager Clayton McCullough and lefty Lake Bachar took over for the eighth inning. The fans on hand were quite vocal in their displeasure with the visiting Marlins pulling a pitcher working on a perfecto, and a group led a chant of "SHAME!" directed at the dugout. Bachar proceeded to walk the first batter he saw, ruining the perfect game. Then he gave up a single. And a run. Before the Marlins' bullpen recorded an out, the perfect game, no-hitter and shutout were blown in perfect succession.

>A's Fans Shame Chant.

After Eury Pérez is removed with a Perfect Game thru 7.

And just like that, the perfect game is gone. pic.twitter.com/zYtwEJtDJi

>Things kept going, too, as the A's ended up scoring five runs off Bachar without him recording a single out. There will certainly be those who believe this was some sort of karmic retribution for pulling a pitcher with a perfect game.

>The Marlins would end up prevailing, 9-8, after closer Pete Fairbanks teetered on disaster in the ninth inning.

>"Going into this game, 90 plus a batter was a pitch count that I felt comfortable with him coming back off the time on the IL and us looking to play beyond the season," McCullough told reporters after the game. "Eury's gonna be an important part of that. Yeah, he had it really going today and I totally get it. There was a part of my heartstrings pulling at his opportunity to keep going but I have to think about Eury, one, and our organization, our team, and what's best moving forward and giving us a chance to win games. I made a calculated decision of where he was with his pitch count."

>The Marlins have thrown six no-hitters but never a perfect game as a franchise, which debuted in 1993. Overall, there have been 24 perfect games in MLB history and 327 no-hitters. MLB still hasn't had an individual no-hitter since Blake Snell did it Aug. 2, 2024, or a perfect game since Domingo German did so June 28, 2023. The Marlins were looking to become the first team ever with a combined perfect game.

>The six Marlins pitchers to throw a no-hitter were Al Leiter (1996), Kevin Brown (1997), A.J. Burnett (2001), Anibal Sánchez (2006), Henderson Alvarez (2013) and Edinson Volquez (2017).

>As for the pulling of Pérez, let's talk about that. There's attached injury concern. He had Tommy John surgery in 2024 and didn't return until June of last season. He missed a month recently due to a hamstring injury and Sunday was only his third start back. He threw 68 pitches on June 24 and 86 on June 30. He threw 92 pitches in this one. Maybe the Marlins could've extended him a little for the eighth inning, but there was no chance he was going to finish this thing without going well over what they were comfortable with.

>Keep in mind, too, that Pérez has never thrown a complete game in the majors, a sample of 53 starts. In fact, he's never gone more than seven innings in a start. He's only finished the seventh inning two other times. He's only gotten an out in the seventh inning four times, including Sunday. This marks the best start of his career, rather obviously, through he worked seven scoreless innings with three hits allowed on July 13, 2025.

>The Marlins, as a team, continue to ride high. They went 20-6 in June and have now won three straight games with a sweep in Sacramento. This moves them to 49-42 on the season, putting them in a virtual tie with the Cardinals for the third wild-card spot, as well as only 4 ½ games behind the Braves in the NL East. They have trailed by as many as 14 games this season.