It's hard to say a regular-season game is the biggest game of any pitcher's career, but for Houston Astros ace Dallas Keuchel, Wednesday's game truly is that.
A win — Keuchel has 17 of them already — would put the Astros back in first place after they surrendered the AL West lead to Texas for the first time this year on Tuesday night. A loss would give the Rangers a little bit of a cushion and clinch a series victory with another meeting happening next weekend in Houston.
So yeah, it's a pretty big game. And yeah, it's the biggest game of Keuchel's career.
But it's not the biggest game of young Martin Perez's career. The Rangers' lefty will toe the rubber against Keuchel on Wednesday with some big-game experience already under his belt.
If you remember, it was Perez who pitched Game 163 in 2013 with a trip to the AL Wild Card Game on the line. He lost that game to David Price, who was fantastic, but he wasn't bad for a 21-year-old kid in a huge game. Perez worked 5 1/3 innings that night and allowed three runs on four hits. He wasn't fantastic, but he was good enough to give his team a chance before they were ultimately outdone by a masterful performance.
The same thing might happen on Wednesday against Keuchel, but you can feel comfortable knowing the situation won't be too big for Perez.
