Perez Twirls No-Hitter Through Seven, Marlins Survive 9-8 Thriller

Eury Perez was untouchable — 7.0 innings, zero hits, zero walks, eight strikeouts — and Miami still needed every last out to escape with a 9-8 win over the Athletics on July 5. The story of the night was a team nearly giving away a masterpiece, then holding on by a single run.

The Marlins built their case early and often. Heriberto Hernandez opened the scoring in the first with a 437-foot shot to center, and Miami never looked back through the first six innings. In the second, Otto Lopez's ground rule double scored Marsee and moved Navarreto to third — the win probability swung from 33% to 21% on that single swing of the bat — before Liam Hicks added a sacrifice fly to make it 3-0. The third inning was even more damaging: Leo Jimenez launched a two-run homer 405 feet to left center, and Lopez followed with a sacrifice fly to push the lead to 6-0. Then in the sixth, Lopez went deep himself — 420 feet to center — and Hernandez answered immediately with a 422-foot shot of his own. Miami 8, Athletics 0. It looked like a laugher.

It stopped being a laugher in a hurry. The Athletics finally cracked the scoreboard in the eighth when Carlos Cortes doubled to right to score Butler, and then Jonah Heim unloaded a grand slam — 371 feet to right — that scored Kuroda-Grauer, Cortes, and Muncy to suddenly make it 8-5. Miami answered with a run in the ninth on a Hicks groundout that scored Lopez, pushing the cushion back to four. That cushion evaporated fast. Two passed balls by Miami catcher Mack in the ninth allowed runs to score, and then Heim singled to center to score Butler and Muncy, pulling the Athletics to within one at 9-8. Heim finished the night 2-for-4 with a home run and six RBI — a jaw-dropping individual performance that nearly rewrote the final line.

Miami held on, but the final score flatters no one defensively. Perez's gem through seven — combined with a clean inning from Michael Petersen in the eighth — deserved a far more comfortable finish. Lopez was the offensive engine, going 3-for-4 with a home run and three RBI, while Hernandez matched him with 3-for-4, two home runs, and two RBI. The Marlins, who cracked the ESPN Power Rankings top 10 this week, look like a team with genuine momentum — but if they want to keep climbing, the passed balls and ninth-inning chaos are the kind of thing that will need cleaning up. Tonight they got away with it. Against better competition, they might not.