After throwing two solid innings of relief for the second straight outing (with two days of rest in between), it seemed as if the recently ousted Roy Oswalt had found a suitable role on the Texas Rangers since being relieved of his starting duties after the acquisition of Ryan Dempster at the trade deadline.
Oswalt pitched on Aug. 2 in the Rangers' 15-9 win over the Los Angeles Angels, going two innings with two hits allowed and two strikeouts on 24 pitches. He didn't allow a run.
Then, on Sunday, Oswalt pitched in a tied game against the Kansas City Royals and was exceptional, throwing two perfect innings with four strikeouts. Come to think of it, before Oswalt lost his starting job for getting pounded into submission too many times, he was actually good for a few innings before watching his wheels fly off.
When Rangers manager Ron Washington asked for a third inning to prolong the tied game, Oswalt declined, saying he'd "had enough". He'd thrown 30 pitches.
"He said he couldn't go any further," Washington said after the game. "He said he had enough."
Maybe Oswalt was legitimately tired, but that'd be fairly hard to believe considering he'd thrown a total of 54 pitches with two days of rest in the middle of them. It'd also be hard to believe considering Oswalt's recent bitterness about losing his starting job despite having an ERA north of 6.00.
If I'm Roy Oswalt, I'm apologizing to Washington immediately. Your job is to take the ball when asked, unless there's a legitimate problem. Saying you've "had enough" after 34 pitches doesn't qualify.
