Another rocky start by Perez dooms Rangers

Martin Perez never feels out of whack physically when he takes the mound. If he isn’t asked how he feels afterward, he quickly tells reporters that he felt good during his start.

That goes for the good outings and bad outings alike.

“I felt good,” Perez said Friday night.

The results, though, have increasingly gotten worse for Perez, who allowed six runs in 5  2/3 innings in a 12-1 loss to the Cleveland Indians that left many at Globe Life Park feeling increasingly frustrated with the left-hander.

The loss shaved the Rangers’ lead in the American League West to 6  1/2 games, and Perez has lost six of his past seven decisions since winning six straight from May 24 to June 26.

“Obviously, there’s some work to do,” manager Jeff Banister said. “We’ve got to find a way to get him back into the good pitches, being able to stay back over the rubber, get down the slope and make quality pitches. He’s quite capable of it. It’s a situation where the last few he has not been able to do that. We’ve got to get him back into it.”

Perez filled up the strike zone — throwing 31 of his first 40 pitches for strikes — but he had trouble putting away hitters. Perez (8-10) finished with only two strikeouts, neither when he could have used one, and five of the 10 hits he surrendered came in two-strike counts.

Five of the Indians’ runs against Perez came with two outs. He knew he needed to get his team off the field. He just couldn’t do it.

“When I had the ball, I was thinking about that,” Perez said. “I have to get out of the inning. Sometimes it doesn’t happen the way you want it.”

Adrian Beltre provided the Rangers with their only run on a solo homer to left field. The shot, measured at 456 feet by MLB Statcast, was No. 436 of his career, moving him into a tie for 44th all time.

The Rangers had chances for more against Corey Kluber, the Coppell High School graduate and 2014 American League Cy Young winner. The Rangers made Kluber work, pushing his pitch count to 113 pitches in six innings, but he allowed only five hits.

The Rangers’ best chance came in the fourth, down 3-0, when Beltre opened with a walk and went to second as Rougned Odor followed with a single to center. Kluber, though, got Jonathan Lucroy, Mitch Moreland and Carlos Gomez to end the threat.

The Rangers saw their leadoff hitter reach in each of the first four innings.

“Kluber’s one of the best righties in the game,” said Carlos Beltran, who went 0 for 4 to extend his career-worst hitless drought to 0 for 32. “He’s tough. Good fastball, two-seamer. Curveball, slider, cutter, changeup all for quality. He’s also a guy who locates. That’s why he was the Cy Young winner a couple years ago.”

Banister was equally impressed by Kluber.

“He’s been hot lately,” Banister said. “He had every pitch working for him. He was on the edges, extremely tough tonight. We had very minimal opportunities to score any runs. He shut us down.”

Perez allowed only one hit in the first two innings but allowed two in the third. The second was a two-out RBI double past third base by Jason Kipnis that beat an infield shift for a 1-0 lead.

Cleveland added two more in the fourth, the second coming on an Abraham Almonte double with two outs. He got Perez for another two-out double in the sixth, this time scoring two.

Roberto Perez, who entered batting .104, was next and chased Perez with his second hit of the game.

Perez made his career-high 27th start of the season and is staring at perhaps six more to end the year. He said that he isn’t too frustrated and is willing to learn from his mistakes the past two games — and during a 10-game stretch that has seen him go 1-6 with a 6.30 ERA.

The key is finishing off hitters and finishing off innings. To do that, he needs to execute better.

“He was only behind in three counts, and that was in the last inning,” Banister said. “More than anything else, it comes down to execution tonight for Martin and the quality of pitch.”

This story was originally published August 26, 2016 at 11:32 PM with the headline "Another rocky start by Perez dooms Rangers."