MINNEAPOLIS -- Martin Pérez says that his agent, Felix Olivo, had always bugged him about adding a cutter to his arsenal. Perez’s response was always the same.

“No. Why do I need it?” he said. “I get a lot of ground balls and a lot of double plays, and my changeup is a good pitch, too. I don't need to have another pitch.”

But when the Twins gave Perez a spot in their starting rotation entering the 2019 season, he decided that the change in scenery would give him the perfect chance to finally try out the cutter. He approached rotation-mate Jake Odorizzi to learn how to throw the pitch, and he said it naturally felt good to him, even from the start.

Perhaps Perez should have listened to his agent earlier, because that cutter is taking him to new heights.

Perez has used his cutter early and often in four strong starts since his move to the Twins’ rotation in mid-April. He greeted the arrival of May with his most dominant performance yet, throwing eight shutout innings against a powerful Astros lineup that had scored 11 runs one game earlier. Perez’s outing was the longest by a Twins starter this season and powered a 6-2 victory at Target Field on Wednesday, guaranteeing at least a series split.

“They got me pretty good in the last two years,” Perez said. “Today, I just came to the stadium, and when I woke up, I just said, 'I need to stay focused, and we need this game.' I know the team needed me to do my job today. I did what I had to do and believed I would throw the pitch where I wanted it. Just hit the glove. And it was an amazing game."

The 28-year-old left-hander threw his cutter 45 times out of his 100 pitches to complement his four-seamer and sinker, which both consistently sat at 95 mph. He recorded 17 of his 24 outs with the cutter, including five of his season-high seven strikeouts. Opponents are now 5-for-51 (.098) against Perez’s cutter this season, with only one extra-base hit.

It was also a particularly important pitch in establishing the inside of the plate against an Astros lineup that featured nine right-handed hitters.

Need proof? Just ask the Astros, against whom Perez had made 11 career starts entering this game.

"Really good cutter,” Astros second baseman Jose Altuve said. “He didn't have that years before when we faced him. It seems like he just came out with that. Probably was a good idea for him.

“Tonight, he looked 100 percent different. He got a little more life in the fastball. The cutter was the key for him."

Perez walked George Springer to begin the game and allowed a single to Altuve, but he escaped the inning on a double play and didn’t allow multiple baserunners in an inning for the remainder of the night, scattering four hits and two walks.

“I mean, the consistency, the pure stuff that he was bringing, it was a night where he literally had everything working, and you can see it,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “Facing an exceptional lineup, he commanded all of the at-bats from the beginning of the game -- maybe with the exception of the very beginning of the game.”

After starting the season in the Twins’ bullpen due to the team’s scheduling difficulties, Perez has completed at least six innings in all four of his starts and has allowed six earned runs in 26 innings as a starter (a 2.08 ERA) with 18 strikeouts and five walks.

When the Twins first approached Perez this offseason with ideas to improve his mechanics and his pitch usage, he jumped at the chance to pitch for a team that had a concrete plan to make him better and that wanted him in the starting rotation. His early success, he says, has him feeling better than he has in a long time.

“I've got that feeling that I'm just going to do that every time I go out there and pitch,” Perez said. “I'm not going to be scared to throw [the cutter]. If I feel that I don't have that pitch some day, I'll be very good with my secondary pitches -- my changeup, my breaking ball and my two-seam down and away. Right now, I'm staying with my plan and enjoying what I'm doing."