The battle of recent surprising Texas TORPs goes to Martin Perez
The Texas Rangers scored a hefty seven runs while the Philadelphia Phillies did not score at all.
2022’s Martin Perez was once 2021’s Kyle Gibson. We don’t know yet if the ending to that story sees Perez shipped off to a contender in the weeks to come, but we do know that Gibson’s All-Star first half in Texas last summer eventually landed him in Philadelphia.
That meant tonight we were treated to the old unexpected ace against this year’s model. For most of the evening, the two recent Rangers standouts traded zeroes but it was Texas who eventually got to their 2021 Opening Day starter for a couple of runs in the 5th on two solo home runs and they added another run in the 6th.
A duo of two-run dongs by Marcus Semien and Kole Calhoun in the 8th provided the eventual final score but those runs came after the starters had already exited.
Though Gibson hasn’t had the same string of success with the Phillies so far, he’s ironically the exact kind of pitcher the Rangers could really use right now. Maybe they’d be interested in a used Spencer Howard.
Nevertheless, Texas took the win in eventual comfortable fashion which is a nice way to start a homestand.
Player of the Game: It was another start where Perez wasn’t quite as dominant as we saw him back in May but he did throw six shutout innings and reduced his ERA for the season to back under 2.00 (1.96) so he’s certainly deserving of appreciation.
Up Next: The second and final game of this brief interleague series with the Phillies sees RHP Jon Gray next up for Texas against RHP Zack Wheeler for Philadelphia.
First pitch in the Wednesday afternoon finale from The Shed is scheduled for 3:05 pm CDT.