ST. LOUIS -- The two most lethal arms in the Texas Rangers bullpen each comes with one critical question entering Game 6 of the World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals:
1) Can Alexi Ogando, dubbed the Magic Man by teammates for making batters disappear, re-discover the rabbit in his hat?
In seven appearances totaling 10 1/3 innings combined in the ALDS and ALCS, Ogando allowed one run on four hits. He walked two and struck out 10. Dominating stuff.
It's been reversal city in the World Series. In four games totaling two innings, the lanky right-hander has allowed four runs, three earned, on seven hits. He's walked five and struck out two. In Games 1 and 2, he gave up first-batter singles that allowed an inherited runner to score each time. In Game 3 he got charged with three earned runs giving up Albert Pujols' monster homer off the club-level facing. And in Game 5, Ogando was again far from perfect, but was able to walk away from three walks and two hits without allowing a run. He's thrown 65 pitches in his last 1 1/3 inning of work.
World Series Ogando looks more like the pitcher from the second-half of the season and not the All-Star from the first half. Is he tired or wearing down?
"You know, I keep getting questions about being tired. Every single person that's still playing baseball right now is tired. So that's no excuse," manager Ron Washington said. "In Ogando's case, yep, his command, hitting his spots is a little off. But, what I see out of Ogando is everything he has, he's giving to us, and that's all I want, and that's all we want is for him to give us everything he has. And that's what he does. Now, he may be tired, but who isn't?"
2) If another Feliz appearance is necessary, can the closer get the job done without first raising his skipper's blood pressure to dangerous levels?
Feliz is 6-for-6 this postseason in save opportunities and 2-for-2 in the World Series. However, Feliz is certainly living on the wild side. This postseason he has put eight batters on base with freebies, seven by walk and one, in Game 5 of the World Series, by plunking ninth-inning lead-off man Craig Allen to face Albert Pujols as the tying run.
He's continually put the first man on and then worked his way to three outs. He struck out Pujols on a 3-2 fastball and Allen was thrown out stealing second for a double play. Feliz then walked Matt Holliday before striking out Lance Berkman.
"Neftali, yeah, Nefti comes in and he makes it tough, but he's my closer and I've gotten to the point as the season progressed that he will get me the three outs I'm looking for. I've just got to settle my heartbeat down and put up with it," Washington said. "Sometimes I get off the bench and walk away, but he is my guy and he has gotten me three each time I've put him out there as we have gone down this stretch here. I just have to put up with it. That's Neftali."