Colby Lewis dominates as the Rangers return home victorious

After going 5-5 on the ten game road trip to the west coast, the Texas Rangers returned home for the start of the three game set with the Oakland A’s. Colby Lewis took a perfect game into the eighth inning, but it was broken up when Danny Valencia led off the eighth inning with a double. But Oakland could not find a way to get on the board as Texas cruised to victory behind a three run first inning and an insurance run in the seventh, but it was more than what was needed in this one.

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After being shut out in two straight games in Seattle to close that series, Mitch Moreland wasted no time getting Texas on the board in this one. In the first, with two outs, he doubled to right to bring in Shin-Soo Choo and Adrian Beltre. Later in the inning Rougned Odor doubled to deep center to bring Moreland home. In the seventh Choo singled to center field and Chris Giminez came in to score. Interestingly, Joey Gallo got the start in left field tonight, going 0-2 before eventually being replaced by Will Venable.

Lewis went the distance for Texas, needing just 97 pitches. After three rough starts his last three times out, he was certainly on his game in this one. He threw 65 pitches for strikes and got four strikeouts, only the fourth time he’d gotten four or more since the start of August. He picked up his team leading 15th win while Jesse Chavez took the loss for Oakland.

Yovani Gallardo will take the hill for Texas tomorrow against Sean Nolin, a young pitcher that the A’s acquired from Toronto in the Josh Donaldson trade this offseason. It will be his second career start, with first pitch at 7:05 PM CT. With the Astros losing to the Angels on Friday, Texas is now just 1.5 games behind Houston in the division.