April 28, 2022 - Game 19
W - Justin Verlander (2-1)
L - Matt Bush (0-1)
S - Rafael Montero (1)
HR: TEX: Seager (2) HOU: Tucker (4)
Time of Game: 2:37
Game Recap
The roof closed on a windy and cloudy weather day, much like both offenses Thursday. The first baserunner of the game came in the bottom of the third when Andy Ibáñez singled to center field. Fans in attendance and watching on television had to wait until the seventh inning for another baserunner, from either side. Ominous hints from all over the United State surfaced; Martín Pérez through six innings was perfect. Things got dicey on a Jose Siri groundout to Pérez as the play was close at first. Originally, first base umpire Erich Bacchus called Siri out, and then the Astros challenged the play. Thankfully, review didn’t spoil a perfect game at the time and the call stood, keeping history in tact in the sixth. "I thought he was going to throw a perfect game," Chris Woodward said after the game. "He kept executing and executing. That's as good as I've seen a guy throw."
In the seventh though, Pérez threw a cutter towards the middle outside for right-hander McCormick. Chas got a good swing and laced a double as right fielder Kole Calhoun had no chance to make a play on. The perfect game ended for Martín Pérez plus the shutout as Yordan Alvarez singled McCormick in on a base hit to left field. The Rangers meantime strung together three hits off Justin Verlander with one out after one hit through six innings. Adolis García drove in Corey Seager with a sacrifice fly to even the game at one, answering the Astros run in the top of the inning. The Astros battled back with two on a Kyle Tucker pinch-hit home run against Matt Bush in the eighth inning after Bush hit Jeremy Peña with a pitch. It was Tucker’s ninth RBI of the four-game series. "It was a good pitch for someone to hit a home run," Matt Bush said after the game. "Other than that, it was hanger." Bush said he was trying to bury the pitch as he saw a swing that wasn't good earlier in the at-bat, but the pitch to Tucker hung in the zone.
The Rangers inched closer on a Corey Seager home run that went over the 407 foot wall in dead center to crawl within one. However, the former Ranger, Rafael Montero closed the door to end the afternoon.
As if Martín Pérez couldn’t build a better outing than he did last Saturday, he proved that theory wrong. Pérez pitched seven innings allowing one hit, no walks, one run, and striking out four Astros. If you combine his start Thursday with his last in Oakland, Pérez allowed one run, three hits, one walk, and nine strikeouts in thirteen innings. "I'm trying to throw strikes and first pitch strikes, that's the key for any pitchers," Pérez said. "Before I gave too much credit to hitters, but this year I became a different pitcher."
It was a baffling decision since he was only at seventy-six pitches (threw eighty-seven against Oakland in six innings). "He hasn't been up seven times, so the concern of his health," Rangers' manager Chris Woodward said after the game in the decision to pull Pérez. "He could go back out, but once we tied the game we were going to our guys who were super fresh and he understood that." Bush came into the eighth and allowed the two runs while John King pitched a scoreless ninth inning, though walked one batter.
Postgame Notes
Texas was 6 for 31 with runners in scoring position in the series (.194).
The Rangers have now dropped thirteen of the last sixteen to the Astros.
Martín Pérez retired the first eighteen Houston Astros. It was the longest perfect stretch in Martín’s career.
Pérez joins the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw as the only two MLB pitchers in 2022 to retire the first eighteen hitters consecutively to start a game. Kershaw’s was April 13 at the Twins.
The last Texas Ranger to retire eighteen straight hitters to open a game was Mike Minor on June 27, 2018 against the San Diego Padres.
Thursday’s homer by Astros’ Kyle Tucker was the first pinch-hit home run of Tuckers’ career.
Corey Seager had two hits on Thursday, the only hitter on either side to have a multi-hit game at Globe Life Field Thursday.
Andy Ibáñez has a base hit in five of his last six games. He's five for his last seventeen.
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