Colby, Colby, Colby Sure enough, Washington shook things up.
Julio Borbon led off, Ian Kinsler slipped to the three-hole, Mitch Moreland jumped to the fifth spot and Mike Napoli was in the eight-hole in a 7-2 win over Oakland in a rainy affair.
The hitters responded: 11 hits and six walks. Adrian Beltre had a two-run bomb on a night when the wind was quiet and balls were not carrying. Mike Napoli had another pair of RBI. Ian Kinsler got on base three times. Mitch Moreland had two hits.
And Mike Young continued to bash. A home run short of the cycle and another pair of RBI. He has 14 doubles and 28 RBI. He's on pace for a career year, and he hasn't let up at all this year.
As much as we can let the pitching staff off the hook, it's nice to get a quality start. Especially from Colby Lewis. The past three starts he's been stellar:
23.1 IP - 19 hits - 6 runs - 4 home runs - 3 BBs - 17 K. Ironically, he lost his best start (the 11K game).
Home runs are a huge hole in Lewis' season. He's allowed 12 (almost two per start) after allowing just 21 all of last season. To compound that, his walks were up earlier in the season. Allowing three-run homers is a lot different than allowing solo homers. You can handle the home runs if you can do away with the walks. Ideally, you'd like to limit both.
Still, I thought Lewis cruised last night and I wonder if he would have finished better if the rain hadn't stopped down the game. He blistered the strike zone, but never grooved anything. Although, there were a couple of Oakland fly balls that might have been trouble most nights. But baseball is not a game of "what ifs."
I think it's important now that the Rangers put together a string of games like that, which sounds super obvious and dumb. But it's not so much about winning, but playing better. Putting together complete games where everything looks good -- pitching, hitting and defense.
An afternoon affair today. See how it goes.
