Colby Lewis is still searching for his old self, and the Texas Rangers are hoping he finds it sooner rather than later.
After missing the second half of 2012 and all of 2013, the Rangers' best postseason pitcher in club history is finally back on a big-league mound and he's still trying to get back to the point he was at prior to an elbow surgery in 2012 and a hip resurfacing surgery last year.
Lewis' last outing was promising as it was his first scoreless outing, even though he lasted just 5 2/3 innings — matching his season-high — and allowed seven hits. He even admitted after the game that he didn't have very good stuff, but he managed to pitch around the hits he allowed and get out of jams. Of course, that outing came against the Houston Astros, easily one of the worst couple of lineups in all of baseball.
Lewis has had seven days of rest since that outing, as the team shuffled the rotation around to avoid having Lewis pitch in a National League park later this month, so he should plenty rested.
At this point, the Rangers would love to see Lewis get through seven innings, even six would be great, against another struggling lineup with the Mariners coming to town on Tuesday night.
