Colby Lewis is the greatest pitcher in Rangers postseason history, and he will hold that title for quite some time longer no matter what happens in the next few years.
But it could be what Lewis has done since those glory years for the Rangers in 2010 and 2011 that is even more impressive for the veteran right-handed pitcher.
As the Star-Telegram pointed out recently, Lewis is the longest tenured Tommy John patient still pitching in the bigs — going on 20 years since he had the surgery in high school, back when it was still seen as a serious, serious deal that could be career-threatening.
Of course, we all know he's the first pitcher in the game to ever return from an unprecedented hip procedure that was basically just a slightly less invasive hip replacement, which involved a resurfacing of the existing hip joint.
And after all of that, Lewis is still putting together a great career and is working his way up the totem pole of Rangers' all-time pitchers. It's continued this season as he's putting together a great year thus far. Through six starts, Lewis' ERA sits at 2.61. In his last two starts, he's worked 14 innings with 14 strikeouts and has allowed just one run.
He'll try to continue that on Monday night when the defending AL champs come to town. He was 0-2 with a lofty 5.54 ERA against the Royals last year, so something will give in the meeting, but the way things are going for Lewis right now it's hard to bet against him.
In his six starts this year, he's given up more than three runs just once, and he's been a huge reason the Rangers' starting rotation has held together despite losing Yu Darvish and Derek Holland out of the gate.
