Too Little, Too Late: Mariners 4 Rangers 2

I hate to be a broken record, but Scott Feldman, who signed a big contract right before the season started, needs to pitch better.

There was a great example on the mound for the Mariners on Monday: Cliff Lee.

Lee stood atop the mound for all nine innings, although things got dicey in the ninth when the Rangers wiped away the shutout by scoring two runs. Michael Young began the rally with hit #1, 736 in his career and is now just 11 shy of Pudge Rodriguez. Kinsler also singled. The duo of Josh Hamilton and pinch hitter Justin Smoak, knocked Young and Kinsler in, respectively.

Hamilton played center field as Julio Borbon recuperated from playing Sunday’s entire 4 hour and 6 minute contest. Smoak pinch hit for Joaquin Arias, who manned first base for a similar reason.

I know they deserve it. I was there for the whole thing, too.

But with the exception of a blip (to the Rangers’ advantage), in the final inning, Lee kept his pitch count down, only using more than 20 pitches once, according to the TV broadcast. Feldman, on the other hand, required more than 20 pitches in all but one of his 5 2/3 innings.

All the earned runs off Feldman came on a Michael Saunders 3-rn homer in the second inning, set up by two singles.

While Feldman does not overpower hitters and succeeds more with groundouts, these numbers still say something.

Feldman: 4 K’s, 2 walks
Lee: 7 K’s, 0 walks