Perez on Rays: 'They got me today'

ST. PETERSBURG -- Martín Pérez’s finely tuned cutter has been the talk of the town lately.

Not that Perez had struggled without it, you understand. Adding it to an already impressive repertoire simply gave him an extra weapon with which to baffle hitters. And the Twins lefty has increasingly relied on it in recent starts, because, well, it worked.

The downside of fame is that there are few secrets, and just as quickly as Perez’s cutter boosted his effectiveness, it also tore him down on Thursday during the Twins’ 14-3 series-opening loss to the Rays at Tropicana Field.

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“I’m not an excuses guy; they got me today,” Perez said. “I’m not going to say, ‘They hit the ball because of this.’ It’s because I didn’t throw strikes when I needed.”

The first time through the Rays' lineup caused little issue, with Perez sailing through the second frame on just nine pitches. Then all of a sudden, they stopped biting. No matter how hard he tried or which corner of the zone he nibbled at, Perez could not entice Tampa Bay’s hitters into taking their hacks.

Of the 63 pitches Perez threw, 30 were cutters, but the Rays swung at just eight. Still, he kept at it.

“Everything was good,” Perez said. “They [just] didn’t swing at the cutter.”

When Perez switched things up in the third, it got ugly fast. After he rang up Guillermo Heredia on three pitches to start things off, Daniel Robertson singled on a four-seamer. Back-to-back walks to Avisail Garcia and Tommy Pham ensued, with Tampa Bay's batters cooling their heels in the box as Perez used 11 pitches on the pair, nine of which were cutters.

After a mound visit, Perez switched back to a heater that Austin Meadows roped down the right-field line for a three-run double. Travis d’Arnaud caught a changeup -- another pitch Perez has been very pleased with lately -- for a run-scoring single to push the Rays’ lead to 4-0.

“I think the biggest thing was bringing him into you, for a lefty, because he likes to throw that cutter on the outside corner and kind of down, so luckily, I was able to put a good swing on a pitch inside,” Meadows said. “I think it was a ball, but it was something that I was trying to look for in, and I was able to get it down the line.”

As a final insult, the last pitch Perez threw was a cutter that Brandon Lowe smacked over leaping second baseman Luis Arraez to score two more runs and oust Perez from action. Tampa Bay’s six runs in the frame equaled what Perez had allowed in the entire month of May entering Thursday, a stretch spanning five starts and 31 2/3 innings.

“I think with the good cutter that Martin has shown, a lot of hitters, especially the right-handed hitters that he faces, they do expand because it’s a good pitch … that does get swings and misses,” Minnesota manager Rocco Baldelli said. “The team we just faced over here, they didn’t expand very much. I think he threw some pitches … they looked like good, tough pitches that they just laid off of.

“We weren’t able to end a few of those at-bats that Martin usually gets those at-bats to end pretty quickly, and today they just got extended and extended.”

In Perez’s shortest start of the season, he lasted just 2 2/3 frames, allowing six hits, walking two and striking out three. The Rays didn’t slow down after his departure, adding five runs in the fifth and three in the seventh off reliever Zack Littell, who was just recalled from Triple-A Rochester on Saturday.

The lopsided loss marked just the Twins’ third defeat in their past 15 games and the sixth in their past 23. Baldelli was confident in his team’s ability to keep the momentary setback in perspective and leave the past where it belongs.

There’s a reason, after all, that Minnesota has the best winning percentage in the Major Leagues right now.

"Our guys certainly don't seem to bring things back to the ballpark from the day before. The good, general confidence shows up every day. Whether the previous game goes well or it doesn't, our group comes in the same way,” Baldelli said. “They come in ready to play the following day. That's what we have come to expect from ourselves. I think that's what we will see [Friday]."