The A’s increasingly imperfect season met up with some near perfection Thursday as the Rangers’ Colby Lewis carried a ideal game into the eighth inning and a no-hitter into the ninth, ultimately losing both but winning the game, 5-1. But Lewis did need to wait until the seventh to get a lead, and after that it was just a matter of building anticipation over whether he would pitch the 24th game in major league history.
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Lewis fell behind Muncy 2-1 leading off the ninth before the left-handed hitter hit a high drive toward the right-field wall. Then was thrown out at first base by Colby Lewis when he tried to reach on a bunt.
Texas Rangers’ starter Colby Lewis came within four outs of not only throwing the first ideal game of the 2016 regular season but also the first in all of baseball since 2012.
That left it to Coco Crisp to loop a double in front of diving left fielder Ryan Rua to get Oakland its run.
Lewis, 36, entered the game 5-0 in 14 starts.
BOSTON – Tyler Wilson survived some early hard-hit balls and pitched eight shutout innings and Adam Jones hit a two-run homer and added an RBI double as Baltimore moved into sole possession of first place in the American League East with a victory over Boston.
Judging by how few have actually happened over the years, flawless games are hard to pull off. Let this be the latest example of that fact…
BRAVES 7, REDS 2: Matt Wisler snapped a string of four straight losses and Freddie Freeman stayed hot with three hits, including a two-run homer in a win at Atlanta.
Lewis isn’t going to get you a lot of strikeouts, but he’s an excellent contact pitcher who won’t be a detriment to your lineup.
RHP Henderson Alvarez, who underwent shoulder surgery last July and is scheduled to throw a 70-pich rehab game on Saturday, was an option for Saturday’s game, but manager Bob Melvin said trainers advised against it.
Heading into the seventh, neither team had scored, and the two squads had combined for just one hit – a second-inning single by Ranger third baseman Adrian Beltre. Nolan Ryan twice took no-hit bids 8 1-3 innings and Charlie Hough did it once.
Rangers: LHP Cole Hamels has won seven straight road decisions for Texas heading into Thursday’s game at the St. Louis Cardinals. But he remained undefeated and lowered his ERA to 2.81 while striking out four batters with just one walk. He’s pitched fewer than than five innings in each of his last two starts and three of his last four.
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