Oswalt to Start Friday vs Rockies

Oswalt to face 7th best hitting team in baseball at the Ballpark Friday

The Texas Rangers say Roy Oswalt is ready to return to MLB play.

The team announced Wednesday that Oswalt, 34, will get a friendly start Friday at the Ballpark when the Rangers face the Colorado Rockies this weekend for a three-game series.

In a conference call Wednesday, Oswalt said he figured he would be sore after throwing 90 to 100 pitches in his last start, but that he bounced back well and had his fastball and curveball working.

"I feel pretty good. My curveball come back, around two starts ago it wasn't there. Everything kind of feeds off my fastball, but when my curveball is working it opens more doors," Oswalt said.

Oswalt said he feels no different than he did in 2010, what he considers to be his best year in the majors, and he is excited about joining the Rangers and pitching at the Ballpark.

Since being picked up as a free agent after being ditched by the Phillies, Oswalt has had a few rough outings in Triple-A Round Rock and Double-A Frisco where he has posted a 1-1 record with a 5.87 ERA in four games.

"The biggest thing down here [Round Rock] was to build some arm strength. Until you get out and compete ... there's nothing like it to duplicate that," said Oswalt.

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Earlier this week, general manager Jon Daniels said Oswalt was as ready as he was going to be.

We'll see Friday ... Colorado will be a good test for the right-handed pitcher.  While the Rockies are only a couple of games better than the Padres in the NL West, they are ranked 7th in the majors for hitting -- ahead of the Dodgers, Yankees and Angels.

Following Oswalt in that series will be RHP Colby Lewis on Saturday and LHP Matt Harrison on Sunday.

To make room for Oswalt, the Rangers will be forced to shuffle some players around to get him on the roster.  The Rangers said they will purchase his contract from Round Rock prior to the start -- more on the shuffled players at a later date.

Oswalt, in his career, is 159-93 with a 3.21 ERA in 339 games.  Friday will be Oswalt's first MLB outing since losing Game 4 the NLDS to St. Louis last season.

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