On Friday night, the Rangers got a sadly fairly typical start from Mr. Hit or Miss, Derek Holland.
Holland, who is near the top of baseball in complete game shutouts this year, had one of his many bad starts on Friday, when he failed to get out of the second inning against Cleveland, surrendering six runs and digging the Rangers into a hole.
Then came Scott Feldman, who gave up a run in 3 1/3 innings, and then it was a shutout over the final six innings in the 11th-inning Rangers win thanks to Yoshi Tateyama, Mark Lowe, Mike Adams and Neftali Feliz.
Tuesday was a bad case of deja vu for the Rangers, who watched as Alexi Ogando laid a rare stinker, giving up six runs on eight hits and two walks in 2 2/3 innings. That was all the runs the Seattle Mariners would get, as Texas came back to win 7-6 on another walk-off hit, this one from Josh Hamilton.
Tateyama was once again nails for Texas, going 2 1/3 with just one hit and one walk, Lowe gave up a hit in an inning and Oliver had a perfect seventh inning.
That gave way to Mike Adams in the eighth with a one-run deficit, and he surrendered a leadoff double before striking out the next three guys, who all looked helpless.
Then Feliz came in and worked a hitless ninth, with a walk and a strikeout, keeping up with his concerning even K:BB ratio, but he improved his career against the Mariners an 0-for-36 for his career.
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The way the Rangers have re-shaped their bullpen, coupled with the effectiveness and overall consistency from the starting rotation without a doubt makes them one of the best teams in baseball when you factor in their offense. Now, Rangers fans just have to hope they can create some separation from those pesky Angels and get a chance to get into the playoffs and pare down that rotation with the lights out bullpen.
