Though Rangers fans in Arlington on April 28 saw the home team drop their third contest in a row, they did witness a pitching duel between Houston’s Justin Verlander and Texas’ Martín Pérez.
Astros outfielder Kyle Tucker hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth off of Rangers reliever Matt Bush that would ultimately seal the game in Houston’s 3-2 win and series sweep.
Texas earned the first of its two runs in the bottom of the seventh when Adolis Garcia hit a sac-fly, scoring Corey Seager, who worked his way on base with a single.
Seager hit the first ball he saw in the bottom of the ninth – a 96.7 mph, four-seam fastball – into the centerfield bleachers to bring the score to 3-2, but Astros reliever Rafael Montero picked up the save by retiring the next three Rangers batters to close out the game.
Aside from the runs, the pitching battle between Verlander (who earned the win) and Pérez (no decision; Bush earned the loss, dropping his record to 0-1) was an event worth witnessing as the two combined to retire the first 37 of 38 batters that came to the plate Thursday afternoon.
Pérez struck out the first 18 batters he faced, extending his perfect game into the seventh inning before a Chad McCormick leadoff double broke up the perfect game bid.
Verlander nearly matched him, allowing just one single in seven dominant innings. He spoke after the contest about his counterpart on the mound.
“You always root for runs, and all of a sudden you realize, three, four, five innings in, he’s got it,” Verlander said of Pérez and his quest for perfection. “Kind of knew we would be in the middle of a pitching duel there. As it goes so many times, like in the middle of a pitching duel, he gives up one, and I come back and give up one. He pitched great. It was fun to come out on the right side, though.”
Pérez lasted seven innings in the contest, allowing just two hits and one earned run, allowing no walks while striking out four. The outing lowered his ERA on the season to 3.00. Pérez has only allowed four earned runs over the last 17 innings (in three starts) but sports a record of 0-2 on the year.
The Rangers fall to 6-13 in the loss, good for last place in the AL West, tying them with Baltimore for the worst winning percentage (.316) in the American League.
Attendance at Globe Life Filed was 19,484 on a 72-degree day that saw the stadium’s roof closed. The Rangers will next take the diamond on Friday, April 29, starting at 7:05 p.m. The first 15,000 through the stadium gates will receive souvenir baseball cards as the Rangers honor the 1970s team.