Rangers notes: Forget stats, Colby Lewis only concerned with W-L
There is a running bit between Colby Lewis and the media before each of his starts.
Lewis is a man of few words, at least when he’s asked about his pitching. He often jokes about sounding like a broken record when he responds with similar answers to similar questions from week to week.
One of Lewis’ long-standing refrains is that he’s not concerned about the minutia of statistics that comes along with his pitching.
All he cares about, he says repeatedly, is giving the Texas Rangers a chance to win if he’s on the mound.
“I think you can get caught up into it,” said Lewis, who starts the series finale against the Oakland A’s at 1:05 p.m. Thursday. “It’s not necessarily about the numbers.”
Lewis wasn’t always so dismissive of his stats. When he was working his way up to the majors in the early 2000s and finally broke in with the Rangers in 2002, he kept tabs on his numbers.
“I think it was a process for me. When I was younger, of course, you’re constantly looking at it because you don’t want to go back to Triple A,” he said. “Now, I only hear about it when it’s my brother or you guys. I try to constantly tell him I don’t want to know what’s going on. He feels like he needs to tell me all the time. But that’s what a good brother is there for.”
Lewis is 7-3 with a 4.08 ERA and leads the Rangers staff with 88 1/3 innings. He has eight quality starts and has been in a groove in June. In his past four starts he’s gone at least seven innings and allowed a combined nine runs in 29 innings.
But don’t bother running it by him. He doesn’t care. He just wants a Rangers win.
“I don’t even know if they had WHIP when I came up,” Lewis said with a laugh. “I feel like I was that way when I was a little bit younger, but now, getting a little older, with kids, all that good stuff, stats are the least of my worries.”
Choice returns
Former UT Arlington and Mansfield Timberview star Michael Choice was called up for Wednesday’s game and left-hander Alex Claudio was sent down to Triple A Round Rock.
With right fielder Shin-Soo Choo still not 100 percent from back spasms and Adam Rosales ill with a cold, Choice was the best available option for a bench player. Choice is likely to be back with Round Rock when Choo is able to start.
Choo did not play Tuesday, but manager Jeff Banister considered him as a pinch-hitter option for Wednesday’s game.
Choice, who hit .182 in 86 Rangers games last year, struggled in spring training and started the season in Round Rock. His struggles at the plate continued the first couple of months, but he has been hitting .300 in June.
“I had a little bit of a rough start going into the year and I was still searching, trying to find it,” he said. “As of lately, I’ve felt kind of normal at the plate.”
His improvement, Choice said, had more to do with his mental approach than anything physical. And trying not to over-analyze his swing.
“That’s kind of what got me into some trouble in the first place, overanalyzing myself,” he said. “Just gaining confidence, believing in what I was doing instead of second guessing myself.”
DeShields better
Injured outfielder Delino DeShields (strained left hamstring) expects to start a rehab assignment, perhaps with Frisco, as early as Monday. He ran sprints before Wednesday’s game and said his legs feel good.
Key stat
40.3 Strikeout percentage for Joey Gallo in 68 at-bats with the Rangers before Wednesday’s game. The major league strikeout average is 20.1 percent.
Stefan Stevenson, 817-390-7760
Twitter: @StevensonFWST
This story was originally published June 24, 2015 at 6:25 PM with the headline "Rangers notes: Forget stats, Colby Lewis only concerned with W-L."