As Alexi Ogando bounded off the mound after forcing a swinging strikeout against his final batter faced on Tuesday night in the Texas Rangers' 3-2 win over Seattle, it was just the next in a line of really good starts put out by Rangers starters, who are now one full turn through the rotation.
Ogando made his first career start and went six innings, giving up just two hits while throwing 90 pitches and not giving up a run, showing that this whole starter thing might not be "temporary" as Nolan Ryan said, after all.
It's early in the season, but so far, those kinds of starts have been business as usual for Texas.
In fact, the only starter that didn't put up a quality start (6 IP, 3 or less earned runs allowed) was ace C.J. Wilson, who got pulled with two outs in the sixth inning on Opening Day in a no-decision (a win over the Red Sox).
Wilson gets another shot today against King Felix and the Mariners with a shot to sweep the series and remain undefeated.
Colby Lewis was good in his start against Boston, but the best three pitching performances so far have come from Matt Harrison, who perhaps had the best of all of them in Sunday's finale against Boston, Derek Holland and Ogando, who was unhittable last night but is on a pitch count limit at this point.
As great as Ogando was on Tuesday, his spot in the rotation still leaves a gaping hole in the bullpen, which once again saw Mark Lowe struggle on Tuesday before Darren Oliver came in and shut it down with the help of a great, diving catch from Julio Borbon.
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This rotation, one time through anyway, has turned out better than we thought, but the concern has now shifted to who takes the ball from them.
