HOUSTON - It gets worse for the Rangers.
Only minutes before the scheduled start of Tuesday's game with Houston, left-hander Cole Hamels was scratched from his scheduled start with tightness in a right oblique muscle. He was replaced by Alex Claudio, the Rangers long reliever. It is the first start of Claudio's career.
Hamels felt tightness before his bullpen warmup session Tuesday. He will return to Arlington on Wednesday for further examination by team medical director Dr. Keith Meister.
Claudio has never pitched more than 4.1 innings in an outing and his career-high in pitches thrown is 61.