Perez Endures Soto’s Blast, Marlins Top Mets

MIAMI — Juan Soto crushed a fastball from Eury Perez in the first inning for his 10th home run of the season. 

And that was it for the Mets. 

Perez went on to allow only one more hit in 6.1 innings to lead the Miami Marlins past New York 2-1 on Friday. 

“It’s been an uneven start to his season, and he just hung with it,” Marlins manager Clayton McCullough said during his postgame press conference. “Why we do this is that with talented guys like Eury, you just hang in there and keep coaching. He’s still got a long way to go, and we like to be able to see this terrific outing. He’s needed to get on a good run here, but tonight, he should feel great about it, because it goes back to the strike-throwing, being in the zone, and he got some great defense behind him by (Jakob) Marsee in center field.”

The Marlins offense came from the duo of Esteury Ruiz and Owen Caissie, who previously collided with each other in the outfield a few games ago. Ruiz hit a double in the second inning and a triple in the fourth inning. Both times he was driven home by Caissie.

Soto went 2-for-3 with a homer to lead New York at the plate and raise his batting average to .301 on the season. The Mets’ only other hit was a single by A.J. Ewing, who has a .281 batting average through his first 32 at-bats as a big leaguer. 

Tobias Myers started the game as an opener, going 1.1 innings with one run allowed. Sean Manaea finished the second inning and went for three more while also allowing only one run.  

The Marlins bullpen combined to allow only one hit in 2.2 scoreless innings. Pete Fairbanks earned his sixth save of the season with two strikeouts in the ninth inning. 

The Marlins (23-29) will send Max Meyer (4-0, 2.85 ERA) to the mound on Saturday against Freddy Peralta (3-3, 3.31 ERA) and the Mets (22-29).