Rangers recap: After Martin Perez’s gem, Texas holds on against Giants

ARLINGTON Martin Perez threw a gem into the ninth inning and the Texas Rangers bullpen hung on — barely — for a 2-1 win over the San Francisco Giants Sunday afternoon at Globe Life Park.

Pitching: Perez cruised through the first six innings, retiring 16 of the 18 batters he faced and limiting the Giants to one infield single through six. After a throwing error by Rougned Odor in the fifth, followed by an infield single with two outs, Perez struckout Brandon Crawford to end the inning. He retired the next 11 batters before a one-out double in the ninth. Perez was replaced by Jake Diekman, pitching for the third consecutive day since coming to Texas in a trade with Philadelphia on Friday. He walked the only batter he faced on four pitches before Sam Dyson came in. Dyson surrendered two singles, including Buster Posey’s run-scoring single through the left side that made it 2-1. But he forced Hunter Pence into a game-ending 6-4-3 double play to preserve the win. Perez allowed one run on two hits in 8 1/3 innings, his best outing since a complete-game shutout on April 23, 2014, his last strong start before arm trouble forced Tommy John surgery. Perez (1-2) struck out six and walked none. Dyson earned his first-career save.

Hitting: Josh Hamilton’s two-run homer in the sixth gave Texas a 2-0 lead. Eight of nine starters in the Rangers’ lineup had a hit. Elvis Andrus was the lone exception.

Notable: Hamilton has five homers this season and three since July 18 ... he has two homers and eight RBI on the homestand ... Sunday’s game was the second-shortest of the season, clocking in at two hours, 19 minutes ... Perez became the first major league pitcher to record at least 25 outs on 80 or fewer pitches since the Royals’ Luke Hochevar did it in June 2009 ... only other Rangers pitcher to do it was Kevin Brown, who pitched a complete-game shutout against the Twins in June 1990 on 79 pitches.

This story was originally published August 2, 2015 at 4:37 PM with the headline "Rangers recap: After Martin Perez’s gem, Texas holds on against Giants."