This story was excerpted from Kennedi Landry's Rangers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

HOUSTON -- It was no shock on Friday night that Martín Pérez was presented with the MVP cowboy hat after tossing a shutout over the Astros at Minute Maid Park.

It also shouldn’t have been a shock that he tried to give the hat to third-base coach Tony Beasley. In 2016, during Pérez’s first stint with Texas, Beasley was diagnosed with rectal cancer and missed the entire season. He’s been cancer free since '17. Before the game on Friday, he went in for his final scans and was officially declared six years cancer free.

Pérez said he almost cried when his team gave him the hat, but Beasley couldn’t accept. 

"Coaches don't get the hat,” Beasley explained. “I just said, 'I'm glad that I could inspire you to pitch tonight the way you did, but you actually had to go out and do it. So this hat belongs to you.' But it did mean a lot to me. He gave me the game ball and when Kole [Calhoun] hit his homer, he came around and said ‘That was for you.’”

Pérez’s performance actually fulfilled a promise he made to Beasley two days earlier. 

Sitting in the dugout in Houston ahead of the series opener, Beasley told Pérez about his doctor’s visit, knowing the pitcher was one of the only players remaining on the big league roster from his 2016 diagnosis. He knew Pérez would understand the significance.

“I was like, ‘You know what? I’m pitching that night. You’re going to get good news, I’m going to win the game, and I’m going to give the ball to you,’” Pérez said. “I told him, ‘You're special [to] me, and I'm going to do this for you and for your family.’ I'm just going to thank God for giving me a chance to go out there and perform tonight for him.  

“I've had a lot of coaches in my career. I can say he's one of the best, one of the top of my list. I'm proud to be here and to share with him these moments.”

“It's a bold statement to make against that [Astros] lineup,” Beasley said of Pérez’s promise. “I didn't think about it too much. It was nice to hear him say that. He went out and did his thing. I was just really happy to see him go out and compete. If I had anything to do with him getting through tonight against that lineup, then I'm grateful that I was able to be part of it.”