Detwiler Improved, Still Not Good

Ross Detwiler had a horrendous debut as a Texas Rangers starting pitcher last week in Oakland, so it would've been hard to not improve upon that outing.

On Monday night, he definitely showed some signs of improvement, but in the end he struggled with the long ball and was beaten again in his Rangers home debut against Houston.

Detwiler lasted 5 2/3 innings on Monday night, but despite being staked to an early 3-0 lead he eventually succumbed to the long ball and allowed five earned runs on eight hits and four walks with three strikeouts.

In his debut, Detwiler breezed through the A's order once before guys started teeing off on the former reliever. On Monday night, he duplicated the pattern but made it through the Angels' order twice before they began teeing off on him. In the fifth inning with a 3-1 lead, Detwiler allowed a two-run homer to Collin Cowgill and another two-run bomb to Rangers nemesis David Freese. By the time the fifth inning was over, his 3-1 lead had turned into a 5-3 deficit.

Detwiler is more than likely safe in the Rangers rotation out of necessity, with the team already looking to replace the injured Derek Holland and Nick Tepesch on the minor-league DL for a few weeks and Lisalverto Bonilla now out for the season.

But the lanky lefty is going to have to find a way to navigate through the order a third time if he's going to be an effective starter in the bigs.

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