Colby Lewis Gives up 5 Runs in 1st Inning as Texas Rangers Lose to Minnesota Twins

Texas Rangers hot bats go cold in their 8-1 loss to the Minnesota Twins.

Colby Lewis struggled for his second straight start. Lewis has allowed 15 runs in his last 4 2/3 innings. He gave up nine runs in 3 1/3 innings in his last start against Detroit on June 6.

Lewis had this to say about his slump:

"I guess everybody goes through it. You just try to rebound as fast as you can from it. That's all you can do. Prepare yourself the same way you've been doing things; it's not like I feel like I have to go out and change anything dramatically." -AP

The veteran rightie troubles have mostly come against left-handed hitters. The Twins Manager Gardenhire flooded his lineup with all his available lefties. Entering the game, left-handers were hitting .310 against Lewis while righties had a .190 mark.

Lefties went 5 for 6 with a walk against Lewis in 1 1/3rd innings pitching.

David Bush relieved Lewis in the 2nd inning. Bush went on to pitch 4 and 2/3rd innings giving up 2 runs on 4 hits.

The only highlights from the mound came from the 8th and 9th inning from Japanese league pitcher Yoshinori Tateyama and long time veteran Arthur Rhodes who both went an inning each without giving up any runs.

Ron Washington had this to say about Lewis' performance:

"If you go look back at it, everything was up in the zone and out over the dish. I could stand up there at 59 years old, throw it up in the zone out over the dish and see what happens to it." -AP

The exact opposite could be said for Twins pitcher Scott Baker who pitched a complete game while  keeping the Rangers scoreless until the 8th when David Murphy singled to right to score Mike Napoli.

The Rangers and Twins will complete their 4 game series this afternoon in Target Field at 1 o'clock.