By STEPHEN HAWKINS, AP Baseball Author

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Justin Verlander definitely seen that Astros batters had been being retired one after one other. The 2-time AL Cy Younger Award winner was fairly spectacular himself in solely his fourth begin since Tommy John surgical procedure.

Kyle Tucker hit a tiebreaking pinch-hit homer within the eighth inning, offering the margin of victory for Verlander, and Houston beat Texas 3-2 on Thursday after Rangers left-hander Martin Perez took an ideal recreation into the seventh.

“They’re attention-grabbing whenever you’re in the course of them. I imply, clearly all the time root for runs, however then swiftly you notice, three or 4 or 5 innings, I am like, you already know, he is received it,” Verlander mentioned. “So type of knew we’d be in the course of a pitching duel there. … It was enjoyable to come back out on the fitting facet of it.”

Tucker’s two-run blast got here off Matt Bush (0-1), the primary reliever for Texas after Perez retired the primary 18 batters earlier than giving up his solely run and two hits within the seventh. Perez struck out 4 with out a stroll, with 55 of 76 pitches being strikes.

Verlander (2-1) struck out eight, additionally permitting one run over seven innings. The 39-year-old right-hander, who retired 18 of the primary 19 Texas batters, threw 64 of 91 pitches for strikes and did not have a stroll whereas decreasing his season ERA to 1.73.

“He was dealing, and he had been matched by their pitcher, too. He was dealing, each of them,” Astros supervisor Dusty Baker mentioned, including that Verlander’s curveball and slider had been working nicely along with his always-good fastball. “That was a traditional pitcher’s duel. In case you took a pitch, it was a strike, and if you happen to swung at it, it wasn’t a very good pitch to hit.”

Blake Taylor pitched an ideal eighth for the Astros. Rafael Montero then labored the ninth with normal nearer Ryan Pressly nonetheless on the injured record and received his first save regardless of Corey Seager’s one-out homer to straightaway heart.

Perez did not enable a runner till Chas McCormick lined a double into the right-center hole on a full-count pitch main off the seventh. The lefty received out two extra batters out earlier than Yordan Alvarez lined an opposite-field single to left to drive in McCormick.

“That was nearly as good as I’ve seen a man throw. He stored executing and executing,” Texas supervisor Chris Woodward mentioned. “I assumed he was going to throw an ideal recreation, frankly. He had the pitch rely to do it. The whole lot was proper there for him. McCormick simply hit a fairly good pitch there. … Clearly the man on the opposite facet is fairly good, has a fairly good observe document.”

Earlier than McCormick’s double, the closest the Astros had gotten to successful was when Jose Siri had a one-out comebacker within the sixth that ricocheted off the pitcher. Perez scrambled off the mound and made a powerful throw to first for a bang-bang play that was dominated out — and stood after a replay problem by Houston.

Texas received even at 1 within the backside of the seventh, when Adolis Garcia had a sacrifice fly to heart after the Rangers loaded the bases with three consecutive one-out singles off Verlander. That included a checked swing from Mitch Garver that become a groundball hit in opposition to a shifted infield.

“I really feel good. We’ve finished a very good job speaking and permitting myself, particularly with the brief spring coaching, to type of construct my pitch county, type of slowly enable myself time to get well in between begins,” Verlander mentioned. “It’s probably the most I’ve thrown thus far, so hopefully simply type of maintain constructing on it.”

Perez was the primary Rangers pitcher to retire the primary 18 batters in a recreation since Mike Minor in opposition to San Diego on June 27, 2018. He was the second MLB pitcher to try this this season. Los Angeles Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw retired all 21 batters he confronted at Minnesota on April 13 earlier than being pulled from his first begin of the season after 13 strikeouts and 80 pitches. … The one Rangers hit, and their solely baserunner, earlier than the seventh was No. 9 hitter Andy Ibanez with a pointy single up the center within the third.

Astros: 2B Jose Altuve (strained hamstring) is scheduled to play rehab video games for Triple-A Sugar Land on Friday and Saturday and could possibly be activated from the injured record when Houston returns house Monday to begin a sequence in opposition to Seattle. Altuve has been on the IL since April 19 and will have been activated as early as Friday. Normal supervisor James Click on says Altuve wished to play a few video games to get his timing again earlier than rejoining the Astros lineup.

Rangers: Catcher Jonah Heim was placed on the paternity record after the beginning Thursday morning of his second little one, a daughter born simply earlier than 8 a.m.

Astros: Jose Urquidy (1-1, 3.15 ERA) is the the scheduled starter when Houston opens a three-game sequence Friday evening in Toronto.

Rangers: After dropping three of 4 to the defending American League champions, the Rangers open a three-game weekend sequence Friday in opposition to the reigning World Collection champion Atlanta Braves.

Extra AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

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