The Pittsburgh Pirates’ problems against starting pitchers continued as they couldn’t solve Miami Marlins 20-year-old rookie right-hander Eury Perez.

Jonathan Davis hit a solo home run in the third inning, and Perez tossed six scoreless innings as the Marlins held on for a 2-0 win Sunday afternoon at loanDepot Park in Miami.

It was the 12th loss in 13 games for the Pirates (35-42) as all four games in the series were decided by two runs or fewer, but the Marlins (45-34) won three of four.

Where the Pirates’ pitching was elite, their offense was nonexistent.

“It was definitely frustrating that we could have won three of four,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said on the AT&T SportsNet postgame show. “You saw four well-pitched games by our starters. With the exception of, really, one inning, we threw the ball well the entire series and did a really good job, except for the first game here.”

Oviedo gave up back-to-back singles to Garrett Cooper and Bryan De La Cruz in the first inning but got a pair of flyouts to leave the runners stranded. After Oviedo tossed a 1-2-3 second, leadoff batter Jonathan Martin drove his full-count slider 414 feet to left field for his second home run and a 1-0 Marlins lead.

It was the only run allowed by Oviedo (3-8), who took the loss despite delivering a quality start. Oviedo, who has a 2.69 ERA in his last nine starts, gave up six hits without a walk. He struck out six on 97 pitches in seven innings.

“Other than (the homer), he was in control,” Shelton said of Oviedo. “He controlled the zone. He was able to control his emotions, which I think probably was challenging because he lives down here and had a ton of family here. So to stay under control and go right after a really good team, he was outstanding.”

Perez was even better. The Pirates couldn’t solve the 6-foot-8 Dominican, who is the first player born in 2003 to play in the majors.

Perez (5-1) became the eighth pitcher this season — and third Marlins pitcher in the series — to record nine or more strikeouts against the Pirates. Even more impressive, he joined Dwight Gooden (twice in 1984) and CC Sabathia (2001) as the only pitchers age 20 years or younger to throw six shutout innings against the Pirates.

Perez allowed four hits in six innings against the Pirates, who have 11 hits off starting pitchers over 25 1/3 innings in the past five games. He leaned heavily on his slider and four-seam fastball, getting 30 of his 34 called strikes and swings and misses with those two pitches.

“We have to put the ball in play when we have those situations,” Shelton said. “We have to put the ball in play.”

The closest the Pirates came to scoring against Perez was in the second inning, when Henry Davis hit a leadoff single to left, moved to second on Tucupita Marcano’s walk and both runners advanced on a wild pitch. But Perez responded by getting Rodolfo Castro and Austin Hedges looking at called third strikes, both on fastballs below the strike zone.

Lefty Ryan Borucki relieved Oviedo in the eighth and gave up a one-out single to Cooper followed by a double to the left-field corner by De La Cruz that could have driven in a run if not for Connor Joe smothering the ball to hold the runners at second and third.

Carmen Mlodzinski replaced Borucki and got pinch hitter Jorge Soler to ground to third. Castro bobbled the ball but threw to home plate to Jason Delay, who chased Cooper down for the second out.

The Pirates’ failure to turn a double play hurt them, as Yuli Gurriel hit a comebacker that ricocheted off Mlodzinski’s heel and into shallow right field to score De La Cruz for a 2-0 lead before being thrown out at second by Henry Davis.

A.J. Puk retired the Pirates in order in the ninth to earn his 11th save.

“We’re in a stretch right now where we’re not doing anything offensively, especially anything early in the game,” Shelton said. “That’s what we have to figure out.”

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