Scott Feldman had another strong outing, and has pretty much erased the ill will I was harboring towards him after his horrendous stretch earlier in the year. As bad as he was then, he seems as good now. Just look at his line from this game. 7.2IP, 6H, 1BB, 4K, 2ER, 105P. Really well pitched game by Scott. I didn’t get to watch it, but I did listen a bit, and “iPhoned” it the rest of the game. This is definitely the time for him to get hot and regain his 2009 performance again. We certainly could use it with the uncertainty in the rotation right now (Lewis out, Darvish shaky for starters). I said it in a recent update, but if Feldman rides out the year pitching like this, we most certainly could now pick up his option for 2013, something I thought would be unheard of a few months back.
The total number of innings pitched by the Rangers that weren’t by Feldman were just 1.1. Mike Adams went 0.1, and Alexi Ogando was in again for Joe Nathan and got his third save of the season, and second in as many days. The combined staff was really great. 9IP, 8H, 2R, 1BB, 5K, 124P. Really happy with the pitching in this game.
The offense here was mostly bunched up the top. Ian Kinsler went 3-5, and Elvis Andrus went 2-5. Outside of those two guys, there were only five other hits, each scattered amongst five other Rangers. One of them was a single by Mike Olt, who went 1-2, but also had 2RBI. Oddly enough, that’s the same story for Josh Hamilton. Josh had just one hit (single), but got 2RBI as well. That was it for the RBI. Not a ton of sustained offense in this game, but just enough when it counted to get a couple of 2RBI singles.
That was enough to take the game, 4-2.
It’s still kind of amusing to me (just a little) that Mike Olt is here given how much noise his name stirred up in the trading deadline talks. I hope HOPE he doesn’t turn into another Hank Blalock, Chris Davis, Mitch Moreland type – the big swing that is well touted, but never could QUITE get over the hump into super stardom in the big leagues. Granted, I thought that about Adrian Gonzalez, and you see how he turned out. :)
But the story with this one was clearly Scott Feldman, who has not only turned it around, but is making some people forget about how bad he was a few months ago. Myself included.
