Martín Pérez retired all 16 batters after shaking off the shot to his shin, lowering his majors-leading ERA with seven scoreless innings in the Rangers' 3-0 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday night.
two batters later as the Rangers won for the first sixth time in seven games and reached .500 for the first time this season.
The 31-year-old Pérez is in his second stint with the team that signed him as a teenager out of Venezuela. He extended the longest active streak in the majors without allowing a homer to 66 1/3 innings. With his eighth consecutive start allowing no more than one earned run, Pérez dropped his ERA to 1.42. He has allowed a total of four earned runs over 55 1/3 innings since giving up three in each of his first two starts, both of his losses.
“He had a lot of late life, a lot of late action in the zone,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “Add the fact that he was pitching to the edges it felt like all night with every batter, you're going to have a quiet offensive night.”