ARLINGTON, Texas -- For Derek Holland, it was a night that went against the run of statistics.
Unbeaten for 45 days with an ERA trending downward to 2.70 and against a Cleveland Indians team that had never beaten him, Holland was knocked around for nine hits and sent to an early shower in his shortest outing of the season, 4 1/3 innings of a 5-2 Texas Rangers loss Tuesday night before 45,200 at Rangers Ballpark.
Save for a bases-loaded double-play ball induced by reliever Kyle McClellan to end the fifth inning, Holland's numbers could have been a lot worse.
“I’m very disappointed in the way I performed,” Holland said. “I didn’t do my job.”
He was charged with four runs, all earned, and needed 85 pitches to get 13 outs. The lefty's ERA is now 3.11.
“I don’t feel like I had my best fastball and you have to give them credit, they were finding holes,” Holland said.
Trailing 1-0 going into the fifth, Holland (5-3) faced five Indians before getting an out. Leadoff hits by the Nos. 8 and 9 hitters in Terry Francona’s lineup, Yan Gomes and Mike Aviles, foreshadowed the trouble that was to come. An errant Holland pickoff throw to second base set up a two-run single by Drew Stubbs to make it 3-0. Stubbs later scored the fourth run on a base hit by Nick Swisher.
“I give the Indians credit,” Rangers manager Ron Washington said. “They made Derek work and they got the hits that mattered.”
In his youthful past, Holland has been troubled by the “snowball” innings, but he said the fifth didn't really qualify in that category. All but one of the hits he allowed were singles.
“I was still making some pitches,” he said. “You've just got to tip your hat to their hitters. It was just one of those starts that didn't go my way. I'll go home and it will stick with me for awhile, but I'm not going to let one game get me down. There are a lot of games left.”
