Colby Lewis is off to a good start. In the Tigers' first crack at the Texas starter, they didn't hit a ball in fair territory: pop foul, strikeout, strikeout.
As Al Yellon wrote earlier today, this is nothing new for Lewis, who entered tonight's start with four wins and a 1.67 ERA in five postseason starts.
The first four of those came last October, when he
- pitched six scoreless innings against the Rays in the Division Series, but got a no-decision;
- beat the Yankees in Game 2 of the ALCS with 5⅔ adequate innings;
- beat the Yankees in Game 6 of the ALCS with 8 excellent innings (Game Score: 76); and
- beat the Giants in Game 3 of the World Series with 7⅔ strong innings.
That came after an excellent regular season. Lewis didn't pitch nearly as well in this regular season, but once the postseason rolled around he took up right where he left off last October, limiting the Rays to one run in six innings while winning Game 3 of their Division Series.
Tonight? Well, it's only one inning and the four-game postseason winning streak might well end tonight.
You wanna bet against him, though?
Meanwhile, Doug Fister's pitching in the top of the second and it's still Rangers 1, Tigers 0.