Sixth Sense: Scott Feldman May Not Reach Seventh-Inning Stretch, But Gives Rangers Consistent Starts

D-tails: Rangers 6-5, A’s 3-2
• Boxscore, Standings

ARLINGTON – One day, maybe the Rangers will let RHP Scott Feldman stay up past his bedtime and party like the other pitchers. They’ll let him carouse in the seventh inning, frolic in the eighth, maybe even see the crack of the ninth.

In the meantime, Feldman just continues to pitch his six or seven innings and give the Rangers one chance after another to win. Speaking of which, that’s just about they’ve done in his starts.

On Friday, Feldman battled through some early mechanical problems to smother Oakland as the Rangers completed a doubleheader sweep with a 5-2 win. The Rangers, who won the opener, are now 5-1 in his six starts. By the way, the Rangers are also now 29-19, 10 games above l500 for the first time since the last day of May, 2005.

Feldman lasted only six innings, which is pretty much his official pitching line. He’s seen the sixth inning in 26 of his 32 major league starts, but he’s never gone past the seventh. Friday was more of the same. He got through six, though it took him 30 pitches to finish off the sixth. More than his total of 104 pitches for the evening, the stressful sixth caused his departure.

“One day I’ll figure out a way to go deep into games,” Feldman said. “It’s a little bit frustrating because I’d like to pitch seven, eight or nine innings on a regular basis. I think I can do it. I thought I could go back out there tonight.”

Manager Ron Washington has always erred on the side of caution with Feldman, who didn’t convert from reliever to start until last spring. Slowly, but surely, he is starting to show more confidence in allowing Feldman to push deeper into games.

Last year, Feldman averaged 94.9 pitches per start. This season it’s up to 99 per outing, 104 over the last four outings.

“I am a little more willing [to let Feldman pitch longer],” Washington said. “He had 77 pitches going to the sixth. If he had gotten through that quickly, he probably would have pitched the seventh. But he worked really hard in the sixth. I want to see them go deep into game, but I don’t want to hurt them either. I think he did an excellent job, particularly after a little bit of a rough start.”

Said 3B Michael Young: “I don’t think it would be fair to call him a five-inning or six-inning guy. He’s a young starter, figuring things out on the fly. And he’s doing a heck of with the little experience he has there.”

On Friday, albeit against a poor offensive team, Feldman showed the ability make an adjustment early in the game and stick around long enough to get the win. 3B Michael Young said Feldman appeared to be pulling his cut fastball in on left-handed hitters too often in the first couple of innings. It resulted in a walk, a hit batter and a run in the first.

But he recognized the issue and corrected and the A’s lefties to a pair of hits in nine at-bats over his final five innings.

“I’m not sure I was repeating my delivery early in the game and I felt out whack,” Feldman said. “I was too often behind in the count, but fortunately I made good pitches when I had to.”

The odd thing: For as well as he navigated rocky straits Friday, Feldman has made better starts in Arlington over the last year. Nevertheless, Friday’s win was his first at home since beating Oakland last May, ending a streak of 13 home starts without a win.

“The year just flew by,” said the older, wiser Feldman.

Older and wiser. That might just be enough of a combination to let him stay up past the seventh inning stretch someday soon.