Scott Feldman has been quite odd this season. He was horrendous early on, and then lately he’s been like the 2009 version. His last 2-3 starts have been somewhere in the middle. Like this one – he wasn’t awful, but he wasn’t that great version of Scott Feldman, either. Thing is, he was doing OK through the first four innings. Gave up just one run – not too bad. Then the wheels fell off in the fifth, he gave up a four spot, and that was pretty much it. The Rangers made an effort to get back into it later in the game, but couldn’t come all the way back, so Feldman and the Rangers lost this one to The Flying Showalters, 5-3.
Nate McClouth had an adventuresome inning in the first. He walked, which isn’t terribly exciting. However, he then advanced to second base on a steal, and then to third on a throwing error by Geovany Soto. He then scored on the next pitch, a wild one by Feldman. So that first run was pretty much just gifted to the Orioles. OK, not a big problem for Feldman there. Buckle down, and you’ll get over that. He did. Held the Orioles scoreless for the next three frames. But in the fifth, he pretty much sounded out of gas. The inning started off innocently enough with a single. (briefly) Former Ranger Omar Quintanilla grounded into a force out. Then it happened. Manny Machado tripled, scoring Omar Q. Nick Markakis grounded back to the pitcher. Then JJ Hardy doubled, and Nate McClouth homered, so it was a quick strike offense there to plate the four runs. After that inning, Feldman was out, and the Orioles didn’t score any more.
We were down 5-1 at this point, and given our general play as of late, I wasn’t feeling to much like a comeback was in order. However, in the bottom of the seventh, David Murphy singled, and then Geovany Soto homered to left, to bring the Rangers back to within 2, with the score of 5-3. However, there was to be no more, as that was the end of the scoring in the game. Shame, as 5-3 isn’t that far away, you wish they could have gotten “just one or two more”, and made it really interesting.
However, the game was pretty much done in by Feldman’s “wheels off” performance in the fifth. Shame, as otherwise Rangers pitching was pretty good this night.
Oh well, I’ll still take six games up in first place, and 20 games over .500 (71-51) at this point in the season. :)