A giant turnaround for Texas starter Derek Holland

From Arlington, Texas -- Was Derek Holland hypnotized? Did someone convince him that this 68-degree night was in April or May, not October?

Who knows?

All that matters to Ron Washington and the Texas Rangers’ fans is that the 25-year-old left-hander pitched a masterpiece when one was badly needed.

Holland’s 8 1/3 scoreless innings Sunday at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington carried Texas to a 4-0 victory that evened the World Series at two games apiece.

There was almost no margin for error against the St. Louis Cardinals, who had scored 16 runs Saturday and averaged 5.8 runs during their playoff run. And the Rangers had to count on Holland, who has shown that he can be either very good (four 2011 shutouts) or very bad (a 4.83 ERA in his other 28 starts).

“He was a thoroughbred tonight,” Washington said. “I think as we move forward in his career, he’ll let us know [if he can dominate]. He showed the world what he’s capable of.”

Holland held Albert Pujols hitless a night after his three-homer performance, and gave up only two hits before being removed after a one-out walk in the ninth. He joined Tom Glavine, Roger Clemens and Kenny Rogers on the short list of pitchers throwing eight scoreless innings with two or fewer hits in the World Series over the last 40 years.

Fair to say this was quite a turnaround from Holland’s first World Series. For one thing, he threw 75 more strikes — a total of 76-1.

When the Rangers played San Francisco in the 2010 World Series, Holland worked out of the bullpen, hoping that Cliff Lee and C.J. Wilson would carry the load. The first time he got in a game, he almost passed out on the mound.

Washington put Holland into Game 2 at AT&T Park, with the Rangers losing 2-0 in the eighth inning. He came in with two out and a man on base, and walked all three men in faced. He threw only one strike in a stretch of 13 nightmarish pitches, as San Francisco fans made more noise than Jefferson Airplane ever did.

“Don’t you want somebody to love? Don’t you need somebody to love?”

Holland certainly needed someone to love him. And that’s where Washington comes in.

“Wash is great,” Holland said afterward. “He’s always there to give us what we need, to pump us up.”

Washington would say after Holland’s horrific World Series debut that his pitcher was hyperventilating when he went out to talk to him on the mound. The manager had to tell him to take deep breaths, then come up with a joke to make him laugh.

Holland was 16-5 during the regular season this year, but that seemed like a long time ago as he had been a mess again in the 2011 playoffs. The Rangers won all three of his starts, but they did it in spite of his 5.27 ERA.

“I need Derek Holland to grow up tonight,” Washington told the Fox Sports crew before the game. “I need him to step up.”

Did he ever.

Holland didn’t let Pujols get the ball out of the infield in three at-bats one game after he joined Babe Ruth and Reggie Jackson in homering three times in a World Series game. And Pujols wasn’t the only guy he kept quiet.

“Emotions, just controlling his emotions,” Washington said about Holland’s key. “He’s a fighter, he’s a battler. Sometimes emotions overcome everything.”

Holland said he was ready to take a step forward.

“I’m more prepared,” he said. “I wasn’t going to let this opportunity get away from me after what happened last year.”

On the other side of the diamond, sure enough, this was it. Exactly what Chicago White Sox GM Ken Williams envisioned.

Edwin Jackson was pitching in a World Series game.

On the mound, rocking and firing, throwing strikes (and almost as many balls). He was doing it for the Cardinals, of course, not the White Sox, but when you make a trade as bad as Daniel Hudson-for-Edwin Jackson, it’s never too late to hope that people will see what you were thinking.

Jackson, traded by the White Sox to the Cardinals in July, walked seven but somehow left with only a 1-0 deficit in the sixth inning. But Mike Napoli greeted reliever Mitchell Boggs with a drive into the left-field seats. The Rangers had a 4-0 lead — more than enough for Holland.

“I would just say he worked us over,” St. Louis Manager Tony La Russa said. “Give him credit … what happened is he just worked us over and shut us down.”

This time Holland was the guy taking away your breath, not the other way around.

progers@tribune.com