Ogando Wins The Duel of Inexperienced Starters: Rangers 3 Mariners 2

Alexi Ogando was only the fifth starter a little over a week ago after Tommy Hunter suffered a groin injury. But he’s making a case to stay there for a long time. He’s the first Rangers pitch to throw six scoreless innings in his first start since 2000.

Ogando tossed 90 well-located pitches and 55 strikes up to the plate over his six innings. He walked two, struck out four and showed a breaking ball and curve ball that weren’t part of his repertoire during his rookie season last year when he was mainly a fastball guy in the setup role.

Making his Major League debut for Seattle, 21-year-old Dominican Michael Pineda matched Ogando’s top-notch performance for six innings, leading to just a 1-0 lead for the Rangers through 5 ½ innings. They scored the run in the second on a triple from Mitch Moreland that followed a two-out walk to Nelson Cruz. The Rangers team already has 18 two-out RBI’s this season. Moreland also doubled in the fifth to account for the second Ranger hit of the game.

But Ian Kinsler started a rally, leading off the sixth with a leadoff single that bounced funny on the grass. He’s knows his new job description down to a Texas ‘T.’ Elvis Andrus, now batting second in the order, sacrificed Kinsler to second, putting Kinsler in scoring position for Josh Hamilton’s two-bagger in the gap. The reigning MVP crossed the plate on a double by Michael Young, his first RBI of the season. Young started at first base for the first time in his big-league career Tuesday, looking fairly comfortable and making a driving stab on an Adam Kennedy ball that was heading down the line for the first out of the ninth inning in a then 3-2 game.

Now 5-0, one thing the Rangers need to watch for is getting a nice lead and then allowing their opponent to comeback and score. On Tuesday, the Mariners connected for four straight singles off Mark Lowe and Darren in the seventh. Oliver rebounded in the eighth with a 1-2-3 inning, all on groundouts.

Neftali Feliz, pitching on the third day in a row, notched his second save in as many nights.