ARLINGTON -- Martin Perez took over the major league lead in an esoteric, but nonetheless thoroughly frustrating, statistical category Monday night.

He has thrown more pitches with three balls in the count to a hitter than anybody else.

In a 3-2 loss to Minnesota that was fueled by three walks in a four-batter stretch in the fifth inning and a whole lot of quibbling about umpire Alfonso Marquez's perhaps octagonal-shaped strike zone, Perez threw 16 such pitches. It gives him 57 pitches with a three-ball count, the equivalent of about four innings of nibbling, gnawing and fooling around this year. Those extra four innings may be the difference between being 1-3 (his reality) and 3-1 (his potential).

This is significant for two reasons. First, it means Perez is using too many pitches to get "action" from hitters, which leads to shortened outings and a heavier burden on the bullpen. Second, it means Perez is constantly on the precipice of walks and too often toppling over. His three walks Monday only reinforced that.

"You get upside down in the freebie battle," manager Jeff Banister said, "and it's going to be a real challenge. We've got to make pitches and eliminate walks. He's a quality pitcher with quality stuff. He does it in every inning. There are times when he's able to pitch through. But you just want to get early strikes and early outs. Get ahead and put guys away."

With the Rangers leading 2-0 and Perez seemingly in a groove, he stumbled against the bottom half of the Minnesota lineup. And he paid a heavy price. With one out, he walked Kennys Vargas and Chris Gimenez on 10 pitches. He rallied to strike out Eddie Rosario on four pitches to bring up the worst hitter in the majors at this early stage: Byron Buxton. With Buxton hitting .107 at that moment, Perez fell behind 3-1, then walked him on a full count.

Before we go on to the part about Brian Dozier's game-changing 3-1 double, we should stop to say this: The Rangers had a wee bit of an issue with Marquez's strike zone. And by a "wee bit," we mean, they were incensed.

Nomar Mazara mouthed off a little after an early called third strike; Jonathan Lucroy did so later. And when Elvis Andrus got really frustrated with a pitch that was in the vicinity of the outside corner for the second out of the ninth inning, Marquez gave him a mouthful. Then he ejected Banister, who said he was told it was for clapping too loudly.

"It's the first time I've ever been ejected for clapping," said Banister, who does have big hands and thus an ability to produce a mighty sound.

Perez and Lucroy also seemed frustrated with the umpire's zone.

Of the walk to Buxton, Perez said: "The ball was in the box [the TV graphic that shows the location of pitches]. But that happens, too."

Said Lucroy: "I think he got a little worked up and was trying too hard. He couldn't get back into a rhythm."

They chose other words carefully but did not disagree about their confusion over the shape-shifting zone.

The Buxton walk aside, Perez still threw too many pitches and went too deep in counts. And if you think an umpire isn't calling the edges, there's not much to gain from pitching to the edges.

In hindsight, it's an easy story to tell. You dawdle with hitters, you up your pitch count, you either find yourself leaving early or in trouble you eventually can't escape. Perez is averaging 17.7 pitches per inning and lasting about 51/3 innings per start. He entered the game among the major league's worst in base runners per nine innings and walks allowed per nine innings.

Marquez may not have helped, but Perez did nothing Monday to help himself, either.

Twitter: @Evan_P_Grant