Eury Perez Flashes Superstar Potential in First Major League Win

Prized Miami Marlin prospect Eury Perez earned his first Major League victory Thursday against the Washington Nationals by a score of 5-3.

20-year old Eury Perez was in control in his second Major League start

It wasn't necessarily the toughest assignment, with Washington entering the game 27th in wRC+, 22nd in wOBA, 28th in slugging, but 8th in batting average.

Perez improved upon his first start, lasting five innings, giving up three hits and one run (a solo home run to Jeimer Candelario), while striking out six and walking one.

Perez fired 78 pitches and just like his first start, 47% of those were fastballs and 14% were curve balls.

The difference in this game was he relied more on the change-up and less on the slider than in his first start.

The first start saw only 4.5% change-ups and 35% sliders while this start included 26% sliders and 13% change-ups.

Perez faced 19 batters and fired 48 strikes on those 78 pitches (61.5%). He struggled to command the zone at times, but for a guy barely out of his teens, with a handful of Major League innings under his belt to only allow a single walk under those circumstances was impressive.

Despite not being particularly efficient, Perez was in control from the outset, touching 98 MPH on his four-seam fastball and blowing away multiple Nationals.

All three runs Perez has given up over the two starts have been solo home runs off the fastball, which is going to happen at the Major League level and is not thought to be a concern, though 3 in 9.2 innings is on the high side.

For his two starts, Perez now has 9.2 innings pitched a 2.79 ERA, 13 strikeouts and 3 walks.

Despite his slender-looking appearance, his easy motion makes it look simple to generate enough power to throw 98 MPH and once he's able to command his pitches better there's every reason to believe he'll be a superstar with time and experience.

Only 54% of his fastballs were strikes and they generated only 1 whiff, but there were 12 called strikes on the pitch. His other pitches generated 4 whiffs on 14 swings.

Bryan De La Cruz homered with one out in the bottom of the second to open the scoring and the Marlins added single runs in the third, fourth, seventh and eighth to hold off the Nationals and improve to 23-21 on the season.

He's obviously young and green, but assuming Perez stays healthy and learns to command his pitches Perez is destined for superstardom in the coming seasons.