He started 19 of 29 Rockies off with a strike, a solid number.
But he started 17 of those 29 off (including the final five) by throwing the first two pitches for strikes, and that’s an awesome number.
He frequently worked backwards, punishing Colorado with the heyday curve all night and spotting a good change, making his riding fastball all the more effective, even when he got it up. He located everything, throwing a stunning 74 percent of his pitches for strikes.
He didn’t allow a run until his 110th and final pitch.
I could have saved myself the trouble of spilling out those 93 words on Roy Oswalt by just going with the five that Ron Washington used after the game:
“He pitched like Roy Oswalt.”
That’s a good, good win, and at least for one night – with plenty of reason to believe it could be much more than that – a very good add.
Dallas attorney Jamey Newberg has been commenting on Rangers from the big club down through the entire farm system since 1998.
Scott Lucas was born in Arlington, Texas, to Richard and Becky Lucas. He lived mostly in Arlington before moving to Austin, where he graduated from The University of Texas. Scott works for Austin Valuation Consultants, Ltd., and has published several boring articles about real estate appraisal and environmental contamination. He makes a swell margarita and refuses to run longer than ten kilometres.
Eleanor grew up watching the AAA Mudhens in Toledo, Ohio. A loyal Ranger fan since 1979, she works "behind the scenes" at the Newberg Report.
