Sportswire Miami Staff | May 22, 2026
You could feel where this thing was headed the second Juan Soto launched that first-inning missile into the upper deck Friday night.
Marlins fans had seen this movie before lately. Eury Pérez came into the game dragging around a brutal 10.00 ERA over his previous three starts, the Mets struck immediately, Soto admired a 449-foot moonshot, and loanDepot park got real quiet real fast.
Looked like another long night.
Then Pérez completely flipped the script.
And honestly? This might’ve been the most important start of his season.
After Soto’s homer, Pérez locked in and basically turned the Mets lineup into background noise for the next six innings. New York managed only two hits all night against him — both by Soto — while the young right-hander attacked the zone, stopped nibbling, and finally looked like the electric ace Miami fans have been waiting to see again.
Six and a third innings. Two hits. One earned run. Five strikeouts. No walks.
No drama. No unraveling. Just pitching.
That’s a massive response from a guy who absolutely needed one.
Meanwhile the Mets did what the Mets have done way too often this year: waste opportunities, strand runners, and make one run feel like an impossible mountain climb.
Miami’s offense wasn’t explosive, but it didn’t need to be. Owen Caissie drove in both Marlins runs and basically played the role of quiet assassin all night.
In the second inning, Esteury Ruiz doubled, swiped third, then scored on a Caissie groundout to tie the game. A couple innings later Ruiz tripled, because apparently nobody in a Mets uniform could keep him off the bases, and Caissie punched a single into center to give Miami the 2-1 lead.
That was it. That was the ballgame.
And somehow that felt like more than enough against this Mets offense.
You also have to talk about Jakob Marsee out in center field because the guy flat-out stole extra bases from Carson Benge twice. Two separate wall-climbing catches. Two separate moments where the Mets thought they had something cooking before Marsee snatched it away.
That stuff changes games.
The bullpen finished the job from there. Andrew Nardi came in throwing strikes and cleaning up trouble, Michael Petersen stranded another runner, and Pete Fairbanks closed the door in the ninth while making Mets fans sweat just enough to keep things uncomfortable.
Fairbanks walked Carson Benge with two outs, which immediately brought the terrifying possibility of Soto coming up as the winning run. That’s the kind of situation that spikes everybody’s blood pressure in the stadium.
Instead, Bo Bichette flew out to center and the Mets walked off the field with another frustrating loss.
And speaking of frustrating, Friday already started with chaos for New York before first pitch even happened.
The Mets designated Craig Kimbrel for assignment earlier in the day after his ugly start to the season, ending a very short and very shaky run in Queens. Jonah Tong got called up and actually looked pretty solid in relief, tossing three scoreless innings and flashing some nasty movement on a new cutter and slider.
Didn’t matter.
Because once Pérez settled in, the Mets basically disappeared offensively.
That’s now back-to-back nights where Miami’s pitching has looked sharper, calmer, and frankly tougher than New York’s.
And if Pérez starts looking like THIS again?
The Marlins suddenly become a much more annoying team for everybody in the division.
By Sportswire Miami South Florida Sports Staff | Thursday, May 21, 2026 | LoanDepot Park, Miami, FL
The Marlins dropped the series 3-1, and honestly, this one felt like a heavyweight fight where Miami just kept getting clipped by a deeper lineup every single night. Atlanta rolled into loanDepot park looking like a team that already expects to be playing October baseball, while the Marlins looked like a club still trying to figure out exactly what it wants to be in 2026.
Thursday’s 9-3 loss was basically the perfect summary of the entire series.
Michael Harris II turned into a one-man wrecking crew. Two homers Thursday. Three in the series. Every time Miami seemed ready to settle things down, Harris showed up again like some kind of baseball horror movie villain that just refuses to leave the screen. And then you add Mike Yastrzemski going deep, Ronald Acuña Jr. spraying RBI hits before exiting with thumb discomfort, and Spencer Strider throwing absolute smoke for over six innings? That’s a nightmare matchup for a Marlins team still struggling to generate consistent offense.
Now give Miami some credit here — there were flashes.
Kyle Stowers continued swinging one of the hotter bats in the lineup with two solo homers off Strider, and Owen Caissie added another blast of his own. The power is there. You can see pieces of something interesting with this roster. The problem is the Marlins are living almost entirely on isolated moments instead of sustained pressure. Solo shots look nice on the scoreboard, but they don’t beat teams like Atlanta when your pitching staff is constantly pitching from behind.
And Sandy Alcantara? That’s the bigger concern moving forward.
When your ace gives up five earned runs in five innings, the margin for error disappears immediately. Alcantara hasn’t looked fully dominant on a consistent basis yet this season, and Miami desperately needs him to become that stabilizing force again if this team wants to crawl back toward .500. At 22-28, the Marlins are entering dangerous territory where “there’s still time” starts slowly turning into “they better start winning now.”
So what’s next?
The schedule doesn’t get easier, and Miami now faces the challenge every rebuilding-but-trying-to-compete team eventually hits: do they stay patient with development, or start pushing harder for immediate results? The young talent is obvious. Caissie has pop. Stowers keeps producing. There are pieces all over this roster that make you think this team could become dangerous if things click.
But right now, consistency is the missing ingredient.
The Braves exposed that gap badly over four games. Atlanta looked polished. Miami looked streaky. One team punished mistakes relentlessly. The other needed home runs just to stay within striking distance.
That’s the difference between a division contender and a team still searching for its identity.
