ARLINGTON, Texas – Colby Lewis is far from resembling the postseason ace he was for the Texas Rangers last October, no matter how good he says he felt.
Lewis gave up three homers in a span of four hitters for all the Toronto runs and walked four in his five innings to lose his third straight start, 6-4 on Monday night to the Blue Jays.
"I felt great," Lewis said. "I felt like tonight was the best stuff I had all year, so I can't get stuck on what happens in one inning, just move forward and take the first four and move on."
The Blue Jays had two outs and Corey Patterson an 0-2 count in a scoreless game in the fifth when he took a big swing at a pitch coming at him about shoulder high. Patterson knocked it out of the park for a three-run homer, calling it a "1 in a 100" shot.
"When you're bitten, that's the type of thing that happens," Rangers manager Ron Washington said. "He tried to go up and out of the zone on him and he still hits a three-run home run. And then the rest of it happened so fast."
Lewis turned and reacted in disbelief when Patterson was rounding the bases.
Jose Bautista hit the very next pitch 405 feet to left for his majors-leading eighth homer. After pitching coach Mike Maddux visited the mound, Adam Lind drew a walk and Juan Rivera hit his first homer of the season for a 6-0 lead.
"Just coming off the year that I had, maybe guys are looking at a lot of footage from last year and kind of sitting on those really good sliders down and away," Lewis said. "For me, I think I got to continue what I was doing the first four innings. I elevated the ball to Patterson and who knew that he would stay on top of a ball that was at his eyes."
Lewis (1-3), who was 3-0 with a 1.71 ERA in four postseason starts last year when the Rangers went to the World Series for the first time, gave up six runs and seven hits while throwing 95 pitches in five innings. The right-hander has a 6.95 ERA this season and is the only Texas pitcher with multiple losses.
Yorvit Torrealba and Nelson Cruz homered for Texas, which was coming off a three-game weekend sweep of Kansas City.
Rangers designated hitter Michael Young extended his hitting streak to 15 games with an RBI double off the right-field wall that made it 6-3 in the sixth. Ian Kinsler also had a run-scoring double in the inning.
Cruz ended a 13-game homerless drought when he led off the ninth with his sixth homer, a liner that just cleared the right-field wall off Blue Jays closer Jon Rauch, who then settled down for his fourth save in four chances this season.
The Blue Jays were coming off a 2-0 loss to Tampa Bay and had gone 15 consecutive innings without a run until their three-homer inning.
"It was good to see Corey Patterson take a pitch that might have been somewhat of a setup pitch on an 0-2 count up and away from him," manager John Farrell said. "To see the six runs on the board was obviously good to see, and we made it hold up."
Kyle Drabek (2-0), a 23-year-old rookie and Texas native, had gotten a no-decision in three consecutive starts that the Blue Jays won after he had pitched into at least the sixth. The right-hander gave up three runs and five hits in six innings against the Rangers.
The Rangers had three double plays and got a run-saving catch from left fielder David Murphy.
Toronto had two on and no out in the fourth when Lind hit a flyball slicing toward the left-field line. Murphy made a running catch with his glove fully extended, and both runners had to scurry back to the bases. Patterson was then thrown out trying to steal third.
Murphy made another nice catch in the seventh on a flyball by Patterson that turned into a double play when the relay through shortstop Elvis Andrus got Yunel Escobar before he could get back to first.
Each of Toronto's first five innings ended on grounders to Andrus, who was back in the lineup after a day off following errors in three consecutive games. Andrus went deep in the hole toward third and made strong throws to get Bautista ending the first and leadoff hitter Escobar ending the third.
Notes: Cruz's last homer was in second game of a doubleheader at Baltimore on April 9. ... Toronto reliever Frank Francisco received his World Series ring from the Rangers before the game. Francisco spent his first six major league seasons with Texas. He made 56 appearances last year before missing the final month of the regular season and all the postseason with a muscle strain. He was traded to Toronto in January for catcher-first baseman Mike Napoli. ... Texas is 6-2 in series openers this season.
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