After Ryan Dempster's "personal issues" that are rumored to be immigration issues preventing him from going back to his native Canada over the weekend forced the Texas Rangers to skip his scheduled Saturday start, on-again-off-again starter Roy Oswalt made a short-notice spot start on Saturday and was fantastic in a 2-1 Rangers win over the Toronto Blue Jays.
But Oswalt didn't get the win because the veteran only went 4 2/3 innings — one out short of the required five — before being removed by Ron Washington after just 62 pitches when Washington had said before the game he'd hoped for five innings or 75 pitches out of Oswalt.
After the game, Oswalt seemed pretty bitter as he was very short in postgame interviews that aired on the Rangers' postgame show on Fox Sports Southwest. Oswalt continually used the cop-out answer of "I just pitch, the manager manages" or something along those lines.
It was clear he wasn't happy after Washington went with Robbie Ross to face Colby Rasmus, who was a career 5-for-12 against Oswalt in his career, with a runner at second and two outs. Ross got the out to end the inning, but as Oswalt was leaving the mound he didn't even look at Washington and kind of shrugged off words of encouragement from Elvis Andrus.
Washington said Oswalt had simply run out of gas after having gone nine days without an appearance.
"The first two innings he was sharp," Washington said on the postgame show on 103.3 FM. ..."He just sort of ran out of gas after he got past the fourth inning there."
The Oswalt-Washington perceived "rivalry" continues to gain steam as it seems Oswalt is nothing more than a disgruntled old man in an otherwise happy, go-lucky clubhouse.
