CHICAGO — Chicago White Sox starters didn’t allow an earned run in the first three games of the season.
Martín Pérez took it to another level in Game No. 4 with six no-hit innings in a 9-0 victory against the Minnesota Twins in front of 10,423 at Rate Field.
The Twins broke up the bid for a combined no-hitter with a two-out single to right by Willi Castro against reliever Mike Vasil in the seventh. Pérez, Vasil and Brandon Eisert combined for a two-hitter.
It was quite the Sox debut for the veteran Pérez, who signed a one-year, $5 million deal with the club this offseason.
The left-hander struck out nine (matching a career high), walked three and hit one batter in his six innings. He threw 93 pitches.
Pérez said “everything” was working well for him.
“I don’t have the velocity anymore (topping out with an 89.9 mph sinker on Monday), but I know how to pitch and I know how to move the ball,” he said. “It was a great game.”
Pérez understood the decision to make the move after the sixth.
“They asked me how I felt,” Pérez said. “I told them I feel great, but I was honest too. There’s no way I can go three more innings with that kind of (pitch count). It’s too early and I think it’s a long season. We have to think in the future, not now.
“But overall, it was a great game and we got the win.”
The Sox knocked Twins starter Chris Paddack out of the game in the fourth inning with a power surge. Andrew Vaughn hit a three-run home run to left in the first. Andrew Benintendi had a three-run home run to right in the second — the 100th home run of his career. Michael A. Taylor added a two-run home run to center in the third.
“We came out swinging today,” Vaughn said. “We had a good approach, and we stuck to it.”
Paddack allowed nine runs on six hits in 3 1/3 innings.
Meanwhile, Pérez received plenty of defensive support early. Shortstop Jacob Amaya snagged a Carlos Correa liner with one out in the first. Third baseman Miguel Vargas smoothly fielded Ty France’s hard-hit grounder and threw him out to begin the second.
Pérez retired the first 11 batters before surrendering a walk to Ryan Jeffers with two outs in the fourth. Pérez then hit France with a pitch but struck out Jose Miranda to end the inning.
He struck out two more batters in the fifth.
As the outs continued, Pérez wasn’t thinking about the possibility of a no-hitter.
“I was just pitching my game,” he said. “Every time I have the ball in my hand, I just want to compete. Just focus on getting people out and trying to get the win for my team.”
The punchouts continued in the sixth as he struck out the first two hitters. After allowing a walk, Pérez struck out France looking to end the inning. That turned out to be the final batter he faced.
“We talked about it,” manager Will Venable said. “He’s done so much in his career, we just want to talk it through and give him the opportunity to at least discuss it. But it was the right thing for him, the right thing for our club to kind of move on there.
“To have him continue this nice run of starting pitching was great.”
It was his longest career no-hit bid. According to STATS, Pérez joined Hideo Nomo (2001 with Boston) as the only MLB pitchers since 1901 to throw six-plus hitless innings with nine-plus strikeouts in his debut with a new team.
Vasil, making his major-league debut, retired the first two batters of the seventh on a liner to left and a grounder to shortstop.
Castro went to a full count before lining a sharp single to right. Vasil recorded his first big-league strikeout in the eighth, getting France swinging. He allowed two hits to go along with the one strikeout in two innings.
“For me, once I started to run out to the mound, I tried to stay as calm as I possibly could but that only ...
