Minnesota @ Texas preview
Choctaw Stadium
Last Meeting ( Aug 23, 2010 ) Minnesota 0, Texas 4
Colby Lewis is used to close games. When he pitched in Japan last season, he posted an 11-9 mark despite a 2.96 ERA.
This year with the Texas Rangers, Lewis has a 9-10 record despite an impressive 3.37 ERA. The right-handed Lewis will try to get to the .500-mark on Tuesday night when he takes the hill against the Minnesota Twins in the second contest of a four-game series.
The Twins will counter with right-hander Carl Pavano, who is 15-8 with a 3.52 ERA this season.
So, by ERA standards, Lewis has pitched better than Pavano despite the six-game difference in the win column.
In his past six starts, Lewis is 0-5 with a 3.20 ERA. The Rangers have scored only one or two runs in each of his outings. Regardless, Lewis hasn’t seemed too worried about his record. Instead, he simply wants to keep the Rangers in games down the stretch.
In 13 starts since June 8, Lewis has gone 5-6 with a 3.16 ERA. And he has 15 quality starts this season, but has either taken a loss or a no-decision in nine of those games.
In his last start against the Baltimore Orioles on Thursday, Lewis allowed four runs and nine hits in 6 2/3 innings in a losing effort.
In six games - two starts - against the Twins in his career, Lewis is 0-2 with a 4.40 ERA. When he faced them on May 28 this year, Lewis ended up with the loss. He permitted two runs and five hits in six innings in that contest.
The Rangers are coming off a 4-0 victory that was highlighted by the pitching staff’s combined one-hitter.
David Murphy had a two-run triple and has hit safely in 15 of his last 18 games. Elvis Andrus had two hits to extend his hitting streak to 13 games.
Pavano, meanwhile, will look to bounce back after one of his worst starts of the season. The veteran gave up seven runs and 15 hits with no walks and three strikeouts over six innings in what became an 11-0 loss to the Chicago White Sox on Thursday.
When he faced the Rangers earlier this season on May 29, Pavano allowed two runs and seven hits in seven innings to pick up the win. Lifetime against Texas, Pavano is 1-2 with a 9.00 ERA in four starts.
Offensively, the Twins were no-hit into the ninth inning on Monday. Joe Mauer saved the Twins from becoming the sixth team of the season to get no-hit, as he had a one-out single off Rangers closer Neftali Feliz.
But that was the lone hit for the Twins, the first time they were one-hit since May 6, 2008.