Martin Perez has a chance for a historic night on Tuesday against the Oakland A's, the team he faced in his previous outing.
Remember what he did last Wednesday in Oakland? The 23-year-old lefty tossed his second consecutive three-hit complete game shutout to extend his scoreless inning streak to 26 innings. That matched Derek Holland throwing two consecutive shutouts in 2011.
Now, Perez is trying to match another former Rangers pitcher, as he's looking to become the first pitcher since Cliff Lee to throw three consecutive shutouts. Tall order? Definitely, especially when he's going to be facing the same team he faced in his last outing.
The reason for these shutouts? It's pretty simple. Perez doesn't do it with flash. He doesn't strike a lot of guys out. He gets groundballs by attacking the bottom of the zone and utilizes his plus-changeup to induce tons and tons of groundballs. He leads the league in double plays induced and also has the top mark in the majors in home runs allowed with a big, fat goose egg.
Perez is now 4-0 with a 1.42 ERA and will look to increase that win total and lower that ERA tonight in a big game for the Rangers to pull back even with the A's for first place in the AL West.
