OAKLAND, Calif. – It's been five days since Texas lefty Derek Holland authored one of the worst starts of his major-league career.
Holland, who will start Tuesday's game against Oakland, moved on from his 1 2/3-innings outing quickly.
"I let you guys worry about that stuff," he said. "I'm fine. It was just one really bad game on my hands. I've got myself prepared. I'm ready to go for the next one. I moved past that and not worried about what happened before."
What happened before was Holland allowed eight runs in his start, with all eight coming in the second inning of a 21-8 loss. Holland's ERA jumped more than a run in that game and is now 5.11.
He spent nearly an hour Monday watching video and said there's no secret about what went wrong.
"It was just bad execution," he said. "That's really what it comes down to. That's why I said I'm not worried too much about it. I'm getting ready for now."
Holland (4-4) has had bad starts before and bounced back nicely. Last July he had a start in which he went just 2/3 of an inning against Florida and followed that with consecutive shutouts. He also had a 1 2/3-inning start against Cleveland in August. He won six of his seven decisions after that.
Holland is in his second full year of the rotation but isn't using experience as an excuse for his inconsistency either.
"I don't like that excuse," he said. "The way I feel is I've been here long enough that I should know how to handle myself and take care of things. I don't like to hear those things."
Texas manager Ron Washington said Holland needed "love" after his last start. If he doesn't improve Tuesday, he may have to go another route.
"I believe Derek his going to bounce back," Washington said. "Not for me, for him. If he goes out there and has another 1 2/3 of an inning, I think I might have to take my belt off, put him across my lap and spank him. If you want to tell him that you can."
Lineup switch
For the second-consecutive game, Nelson Cruz is batting sixth for the Rangers and David Murphy is hitting seventh. The Rangers usually go with Murphy sixth and Murphy seventh when both are in the lineup but Washington switched it because Murphy hasn't been providing the production Washington wanted.
Cruz has four home runs in his last night games, including one Sunday that was estimated at 484 feet.
That two-run blast to left-center is one of the longest hit by anyone this season and is as far as Cruz can hit a ball.
"I don't have anything else," said Cruz, who now has eight homers on the season. "I didn't see the ball land. I knew it went far."
Cruz is hitting .333 over the last 24 games and has 23 RBIs in that span.
"I feel good," he said. "I can see the ball better. I don't chase pitches out of the strike zone, sliders down in the dirt. It's a long season and you're going to go through a lot of things in the course of the season. The main thing is be consistent. I'm happy with the way the season's been going because I'm playing every day."
