Pérez shines in his Chicago debut with 6 hitless innings in White Sox’ romp over Twins
MartÃn Pérez figured he had enough left to remain in the game a little longer. He also knew he couldn’t go the distance.
The veteran left-hander threw six no-hit innings and tied a career high with nine strikeouts in a sparkling Chicago debut, helping the White Sox roll past the Minnesota Twins 9-0 on Monday.
“They asked me how I feel,” Pérez said. “I told them I feel great. But I was honest, too. I mean, there’s no way I could go three more innings. It’s too early. It’s a long season.”
Pérez began his afternoon by getting Byron Buxton to ground out on the game’s first pitch. He ended it by catching Ty France looking at a 2-2 cutter.
Pérez threw 93 pitches and walked three. He retired the first 11 batters before walking Ryan Jeffers and hitting France on the next pitch, but got out of that jam when he caught Jose Miranda looking at a 3-2 cutter.
Pérez kept the Twins off balance with cutters, sinkers, changeups and curves. He consistently hit the corners, but never hit 90 mph.
“I don’t have the velocity anymore, but I know how to pitch, I know how to move the ball,” he said.
The Twins’ only hits were singles by Willi Castro and Jeffers in the seventh and eighth against Mike Vasil in his major league debut.
Pérez, who turns 34 on Friday, was an All-Star with Texas in 2022 and helped the Rangers win the World Series the following year. He pitched for Pittsburgh and San Diego last season before signing a $5 million, one-year contract with Chicago in January.
The White Sox sure will take more performances like this.
Pérez joined Boston’s Hideo Nomo in 2001 as the only major leaguers since 1901 to toss six or more hitless innings while striking out at least nine while debuting with a new team.
“That’s MartÃn. He knows how to pitch,” said White Sox manager Will Venable, Boston’s bench coach in 2021 when Pérez was with the Red Sox. “I’ve seen it a lot. To have him continue this nice run of starting pitching was great.”
Through four games, the White Sox have a a 0.75 ERA. Their starters have combined for 23 innings without an earned run, the longest stretch to start a season in franchise history, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The previous mark was 21 in 1947. Chicago also matched Toronto in 2019, San Francisco in 2013 and Milwaukee in 1976 for the longest season-opening streak in the major leagues since 1913, according to Elias.
The terrific outing by Pérez comes on the heels of a stellar showing by the starters in the season-opening series against the Los Angeles Angels. Rookie Sean Burke went six scoreless innings in an opening day win, and though the White Sox dropped the next two games, the starters did their job. Jonathan Cannon tossed five shutout innings in Saturday’s 1-0 loss, and Davis Martin allowed two unearned runs in six innings on Sunday.
“I think it’s really awesome when you’re out there in the bullpen and all the starters are doing what they’re doing,” Vasil said. “It’s very, very impressive. Obviously, as a pitcher on this staff, you want to be known as a team with a great pitching staff. So far, I think that’s exactly what we have. So that’s definitely a positive, positive thing.”
White Sox fall short to Angels in rain-delayed game
Kyren Paris homered on the first pitch he saw after a lengthy rain delay and the Los Angeles Angels rallied to beat the Chicago White Sox 3-2 on Sunday.
Paris — a second-round pick in 2019 — hit his first home run this year after hitting one last season in 51 at-bats. Closer Kenley Jansen gave up a leadoff double to Andrew Vaughn and a walk to Matt Thaiss to begin the bottom of the ninth. He got Miguel Vargas to pop out before inducing a double-play grounder from Brooks Baldwin.
Mike Trout collected his first hit of the season when he singled to load the bases in the top of the first inning. Jorge Soler followed with a sacrifice fly and Yoán Moncada had an RBI ground out for a 2-0 lead.
Nick Maton hit his first career lead-off homer and Luis Robert Jr. singled and scored on a two-out single by Thaiss to tie it at 2.
The delay came in the bottom of the seventh after Thaiss doubled with one out and Vargas worked a full count off reliever Ryan Zeferjahn.
Key moment
Angels reliever Ben Joyce entered after the 2-hour, 48-minute delay and walked Vargas before throwing a wild pitch to put runners on second and third. He retired Baldwin on a fly out to left before getting Lenyn Sosa to pop out.
Key stat
White Sox starting pitchers allowed no earned runs in the series. Sean Burke pitched six scoreless innings on Thursday, and Jonathan Cannon tossed five shutout innings Saturday. Davis Martin allowed two unearned runs in six innings Sunday.
Up next
MartÃn Pérez makes his White Sox debut on Monday to begin a three-game home series against the Minnesota Twins. Tyler Anderson gets his first start for the Angels against the Cardinals in St. Louis on Monday.
