Marlins lose another big arm for playoff push as Eury Perez is placed on injured list

The Marlins already know whatever they accomplish in 2023 will have to be done without Sandy Alcantara.

On Saturday, they found out they’ll have to finish their playoff push without another of their big arms on the mound.

The Marlins placed right-hander Eury Perez on the 15-day injured list retro to Sept. 21 with left SI joint inflammation.

The team selected right-handed pitcher Jeff Lindgren to fill Perez’s spot on the roster.

The move effectively ends Perez’s regular season and means he would also miss the National League Wild Card round, which is scheduled to be played from Oct. 3-5, should the Marlins advance to the postseason. Perez would be eligible to be taken off the injured list Oct. 6.

“I feel bad because I wanted to help the club and give them my best,” Perez said after Saturday’s game.

The news came shortly after the announcement that Alcantara’s season had come to an end due to a UCL sprain in his right elbow.

Perez said he started to feel pain on the left side of his lower back two starts ago and in his most recent start it began to hurt more.

“I was pitching through pain trying to stay in the game and go deep,” Perez said. “It affected me more the last start because I wasn’t throwing with the same velocity I’m used to and I was throwing too many balls.”

Perez has gone 5-6 with a 3.15 ERA over 91 1/3 innings (19 starts) during his rookie season with 108 strikeouts and 31 walks. Perez has a 3.86 ERA over his past five starts during which the Marlins have gone 2-3.

With both Alcantara and Perez sidelined, the Marlins will rely on Jesus Luzardo, Braxton Garrett and Edward Cabrera as the main starting pitchers the rest of the season and, if they make it, the playoffs. Miami will use bullpen days to round out the rotation to close out the regular season, with Bryan Hoeing, Johnny Cueto, George Soriano and Lindgren options to pitch multiple innings in those games.

Perez is coming off a start Wednesday in which he pitched just three innings against the New York Mets, giving up three runs (two earned runs) on three hits and three walks while striking out two.

Add in his time in the minor leagues, and his total innings pitched jumps to 128. For context, he threw 78 innings in 2021 and 83 innings in 2022 (including six innings in the minor-league playoffs). That’s an increase of 45 innings — about 54.2 percent more innings thrown this year than last year.

In four September starts, Perez has a 5.19 ERA (10 earned runs in 17 1/3 innings) with 18 strikeouts against nine walks. He has allowed five of his 15 home runs in this stretch despite it accounting for fewer than 20 percent of his total big-league innings.