The last time Alexi Ogando toed the rubber at Yankee Stadium in The Bronx, he had one of his worst performances of an otherwise stellar breakout season in his first year as a starting pitcher.
It was back on April 17 and Ogando was 2-0 when he gave up six hits and five earned runs in six innings of work, giving up a couple of monster home runs in the biggest launching pad in baseball. The Rangers went on to lose that game 6-5 but Ogando took a no-decision.
Fast-forward two months and Ogando is still without a loss, sporting a 7-0 record with an ERA of 2.10 in 12 starts and is a legitimate possibility to start for the American League in the All-Star Game under AL manager Ron Washington.
Now he'll get another crack at the vaunted Yankees lineup and be opposite one of the most intimidating pitchers in baseball in Yankees lefty CC Sabathia.
Ogando doesn't complicate things on the mound with his fastball, fastball, fastball approach with an occasional wicked slider mixed in.
This season, Ogando has yet to fail to get out of the sixth inning, which means he's going through lineups multiple times and has started to see teams multiple times with similar results — usually in Ogando's favor.
Right now, the only question mark for Ogando is his workload, which has already eclipsed his career high for innings pitched, but other than that it appears he's solidified himself as an ace.
