Bullpen Squanders Martín Pérez's Gem As Rangers Fall To Astros, 3-2

Martín Pérez pitched six perfect innings, but one bad pitch from the bullpen was too much for the Rangers to overcome.

ARLINGTON, Texas — The Texas Rangers fell short in a pitcher's duel, losing to the Houston Astros on Thursday afternoon, 3-2. The loss drops Texas to 6-13 on the season.

Rangers starter Martín Pérez matched Houston's Justin Verlander blow for blow, and flirted with history in the process. Pérez retired the first 18 batters he faced, carrying a perfect game to the start of the seventh inning. However, Astros right fielder Chas McCormick ended Pérez's no-hit and perfect game bid with a double laced into right-center field.

Pérez nearly danced out of the inning with the shutout intact, but Yordan Alvarez was able to drive in McCormick with a two-out RBI single. The Rangers offense was able to pick up Pérez in the bottom half of the frame as Corey Seager, Mitch Garver and Nathaniel Lowe hit three consecutive singles to load the bases. Then Adolis García drove in the tying run with a sacrifice fly.

The long inning in which the Rangers tied the game forced manager Chris Woodward to weigh the decision of sending his starter back out for the eighth inning or turn to one of his more trusted arms in the bullpen.

The Rangers skipper chose the latter.

"He hasn't gone into the eighth inning (yet)," Woodward said. "The concern there was obviously his health. I know he had a decent amount of pitches and probably could have gone back out. Once we tied the game, we were going to go to our guys who were super fresh."

Pérez did lobby for the eighth inning, but respected the manager's decision.

"I was ready for another inning," Pérez said. "When they made the decision that I was finished, I was okay with that. But at only 76 pitches, I felt like I could have gone more."

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The concern for Woodward was not Pérez's pitch count, but the number of "ups", especially considering the lengthy bottom of the seventh.

"If you talk to pitchers, pitching coaches, that's probably the thing you worry about the most," Woodward said. "It's obviously about the pitches as well. But when you have to sit down, especially when there's a lot on the line ... that's when pitchers tend to have bad things happen.

"It's hard on a pitcher to sit there and wait. You may have 75 pitches, but if you've been up seven times, it's difficult on your body, especially if that last one is a long wait in between. If we didn't score or if we were actually in the lead, we were considering sending him back out there. But at that point, he had done his job."

The one who relieved him, Matt Bush, was unable to keep the game tied at 1-1. Bush struck out Aledmys Díaz to start the inning, but then hit Jeremy Peña with a pitch. Kyle Tucker, who terrorized the Rangers in the series, subbed for Jose Siri as a pinch hitter and smashed a two-run home run to give the Astros the lead.

"It was a good pitch for someone to hit a home run," Bush said. "(I wanted to go) anywhere but where I went with it. I was trying to bury it. I felt like I saw a swing that wasn't very good on a pitch that was a little bit lower in that at-bat. That one just didn't work out."

As for the Rangers offense, Verlander had his way with the lineup, going seven innings with one run allowed on four hits with eight strikeouts.

For the second game in a row, the Rangers rallied in the ninth inning while trailing by two runs, but came up just short. Corey Seager launched a home run to straight-away center field to bring the team within and Nathaniel Lowe drew a two-out walk to bring Adolis García to the plate, but 'El Bombi' grounded out to end the threat.

For Pérez, Thursday's outing was the second time in Major League Baseball this season a pitchers opened a start with six perfect innings. Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw threw seven perfect innings on April 13 at Minnesota, and was controversially removed from the game with the perfect game intact.

Additionally, Thursday was the longest stretch of perfection to open a start for Pérez in his career.

What's Next?

The Rangers welcome the defending World Series champion Atlanta Braves to Texas for a three-game series at Globe Life Field over the weekend. On Friday, Texas right-hander Spencer Howard (0-1, 14.40 ERA) is scheduled to start against Atlanta's Ian Anderson (1-1, 5.40 ERA).