This game was looking pretty good through the first four innings. Colby Lewis was doing OK, decent pitch count, good if not dominant numbers. The same for Toronto starter Kyle Drabek, a kid who I used to know from his time in the Philly system.
Thought we were having a good time, until right towards the end of the fourth inning, I had a feeling something bad was going to happen. The Jays had two men on via a single and a walk. After a flyout to Murphy, Corey Patterson was caught stealing at third on a double steal attempt. Juan Rivera was at the plate, and we got what seemingly looked like a called third strike to end the inning, but he ended up walking. No immediate damage was caused because Molina grounded out to end the inning.
The fourth also started off not bad. Walk, then two flyouts to get to two outs. It was at this point that the wheels completely fell off the bus. Not only did they fall off of Lewis bus lines, but the bus ran over Colby a few times when the Jays batters were driving it back and forth over him. Three run home run by Corey Patterson. Solo home run back to back from Bautista. Walk to Adam Lind. Visit from Mike Maddux. Two run home run to Juan Rivera. BAM BAM BAM! Three home runs in the fifth inning was the game. We were down 6-0 that point, and it just felt bad.
Dave Bush followed Colby the next three innings and pitched quite well. He only allowed two hits and a walk on 34 pitches. Really nice outing by Dave there. Pedro Strop also followed with a perfect inning of his own, and he’s starting to look quite good out there. We just need more guys out there like that right now. :)
It wasn’t all bad. The Rangers started playing peck away. We got a solo home run from Torrealba in the fifth to cancel Drabek’s shutdown inning, and put us on the board. A couple of doubles from Ian Kinsler & Michael Young put two more on the board in the bottom of the sixth. Now down 6-3. Nelson Cruz found his long missing boomstick and hit a solo home run in the bottom of the ninth to make it 6-4, but that was it. After the home run, the Rangers went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the ninth.
We had a valiant comeback attempt, but couldn’t get the job done. Definitely were sunk by the three homers Colby Lewis allowed in the fifth. Much has been made this season about a big “Uh-oh” with him that his velocity is down so far this season. That alone isn’t a huge problem, I’m more worried about his lack of command. He doesn’t seem to dominate like he did last season, especially like he did in the playoffs. Joey M over at BBTIA wrote a far more verbose article on this subject than I probably could, so I’ll just send you over there to read it if you haven’t (Linkage here).
I’m not in panic mode about Colby Lewis, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was concerned. I am. Hopefully he gets it together here, and doesn’t go all Scott Feldman on us.