Rangers Waste Great Robbie Ross Outing

Robbie Ross pitched his heart out last night against the Houston Astros, but he was totally out dueled by former Texas Ranger Scott Feldman. Actually, he wasn’t but the Rangers bull pen was. Robbie Ross went five innings giving up no hits and no runs. So why did the Rangers pull him you ask? Protection of the young left hander.

"“It was all about Robbie Ross and protecting him,” Ron Washington said according to texasrangers.com. “I thought he was outstanding. He had given us 70 quality pitches and we were expecting 60. That was enough.”"

As it turned out, it wasn’t enough as Phil Klein came in and allowed two runs on three hits which was all the Astros needed behind the dominance of Scott Feldman.

"“He was throwing his first pitch for strikes,” Carlos Corporan said of Scott Feldman. “He was using his curveball, his changeup. His cutter was really good. Whatever I would call, he would throw for strikes. He had big strikeouts. He was tremendous.”"

The Rangers are now going for the split in this series with the Houston team, and the Silver Boot is now lost to the Astros. It is just par for the course with the way the 2014 season has gone for this club. So now the question still remains, should Robbie Ross be a starter next season or should he go back to the bull pen? After watching him pitch last night, the knee jerk reaction is to continue to develop him as a starter, but then you remember that he has an ERA of around 2.50 as a reliever and an ERA of 5.63 as a starter.

Robbie Ross will be one of the interesting moves during the off season. It will be interesting to see which way the Rangrs decide to go with him. Starter or reliever, I hope to see a healthy Robbie Ross in 2015, one that is capable of doing exactly what he did to the Astros last night.