Perez Finally Gets the Nod

Scott Feldman has finally, finally worn out his welcome in the Texas Rangers' starting pitching rotation.

Feldman, who was actually named the Rangers' player of the month for July after going 6-0 sandwiched that in between stretches of 0-6 and 0-5 and is now 6-11 on the season with a 5.32 ERA. He should've picked up another loss on Saturday after lasting just 2 2/3 innings but was bailed out of by his offense before the Rangers eventually lost in the eighth inning.

To put it briefly, it was just time. Time for Feldman to move back to the long-relief role in the Rangers' bullpen where he's actually had some success, including last postseason when he had a 3.00 ERA and recorded several big outs in the Rangers' wins over the Tampa Bay Rays and Detroit Tigers.

Stepping in will be 21-year-old lefty Martin Perez, who has pitched in nine games for the Rangers this season, making three starts, and came in to relieve Feldman's disaster on Saturday only to pitch 4 1/3 innings of scoreless baseball while striking out five and walking one.

"He's been very aggressive, he's been keeping the ball down and he's been showing tremendous improvement," Washington said of Perez on Sunday. "He's a very good competitor. We're going to give him an opportunity to take a few starts the rest of the way."

Perez has posted a 3.38 ERA in his 29 1/3 innings of work this season after being called up in June as the Rangers' top pitching prospect.

We're not sure how Perez will fare in his few starts to end the season, but there's no question he'll be thrown into the fire of a pennant race as he'll pitching against the Oakland A's twice. And who knows? If he pitches like he has been lately, he just might steal that long-relief role from Feldman on the Rangers' postseason roster.

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