Rangers starting pitcher Martín Pérez is about having fun.
“Just trying to have fun every time, you know, because I know this is a job, but at the same time, it’s a game,” Martín Pérez said. “Just come here and have fun.”
The “fun” Pérez alludes to comes in the form of the first complete-game shutout for a Rangers starting pitcher since September of 2020 (Kyle Gibson) as Texas and Pérez blanked the Astros 3-0 on May 20.
Both complete games took place at Minute Maid Park against the Astros. The 2020 shutout was also the Rangers’ last victory in Houston.
Pérez’s fourth career complete game was his first since throwing them in back-to-back starts against the White Sox on April 18 and the Athletics on April 23, 2014.
“I just like to pitch here,” Pérez said. “Pitching against Houston, it made me, you know, take me to another level. They got really good hitters, and you know I got a lot of friends there too, and then I don’t want them to beat me, you know, but was fun today.”
Aside from the nine innings pitched, Pérez allowed eight hits, walked a lone batter, and fanned five. The win moves Pérez to 3-2 on the season, and the blanking of the Astros lowers his ERA on the year to 1.64 in eight starts.
The scoreboard showed goose eggs for both teams until the top of the fourth when Kole Calhoun yanked an 87 MPH changeup into the leftfield stands for his sixth homer to give Texas their first run.
Texas and Pérez carried the 1-0 lead into the eighth inning, where Eli White and Marcus Semien each earned an RBI to give the Rangers a 3-0 cushion, and Pérez just needed six more outs for the complete game.
Pérez sailed through the bottom of the eighth, and after the game, he said there was never any question in his mind he would close out the contest. Yet still, Rangers’ skipper Chris Woodard checked in with his pitcher before Pérez took the mound in the bottom of the ninth.
“He just asked me how I feel, and I say ‘I’m OK,’ and then you just give me the ball, that’s that,” Pérez said. “That’s what I need. I just need the ball, and I can go out there and do the rest.”
Martín Pérez retired Jose Altuve and Michael Brantley before allowing a two-out single to Alex Bergman and Kyler Tucker, bringing the winning run to the plate in the form of Yuli Gurriel.
Gurriel would work the count full against Pérez before getting the 37-year-old first basemen top pop out to leftfield, securing the Texas win. The victory pushes the team record to 18-20 on the year, leaving the Rangers six games behind first-place Houston and 4.5 games behind second-place Anaheim.
The rubber match with Houston is Saturday, May 21, with projected starters Jon Gray (1-1, 5.73) for Texas and two-time Cy Young Award winner Justin Verlander (5-1, 1.38) on the bump for Houston.
