Thoughts on a 3-0 win

Rangers 3, A's 0

• Ho, hum.  Another 3 hit shutout for Martin Perez, his second in a row.  This also is the third straight game in which he's gone at least 8 innings while allowing 0 runs.  Perez wasn't at his sharpest today -- he had only 3 Ks against 2 walks, throwing 64 strikes out of 109 pitches -- but he got 17 ground balls against 4 fly balls, and erased two of the five baserunners he allowed on the afternoon on GIDPs.  Basically, Martin Perez was doing his best Matt Harrison impression today.
• Perez now has a 1.42 ERA on the season.  That's pretty good for a 23 year old.
• There's not much to talk about, vis-a-vis the offense.  The Rangers got in front in the first inning, when Alex Rios tripled home Michael Choice with one out.  Donnie Murphy hit a home run, Michael Choice drove in the third run with an RBI single, and Josh Wilson was the lone Ranger hitter to have more than one hit.
• There was a weird play in the first inning, which ended up not mattering as far as the victory goes, but which was potentially problematic.  After Rios's triple, he tried to score on a Prince Fielder ground ball.  Rios was called safe on the play at the plate, which was then challenged by the A's.  After review, Rios was called out.  Ron Washington then asked the umpires whether A's catcher Derek Norris blocked the plate in violation of the rules.  Per Evan Grant, the umpires told Wash that both the safe/out call and the blocking of the plate were reviewed, while MLB -- who handles the reviews from a central location -- says only the safe/out call was reviewed.  So there seems to be some confusion about what was reviewed, and the Rangers may have been cost a run and an out by problems with the review process.