Rangers starting pitchers were no match for Blue Jays’ sluggers

Starting pitching was a no-show for the Texas Rangers’ postseason.

Colby Lewis followed the dismal lead set by Cole Hamels and Yu Darvish in Sunday’s AL Division Series Game 3 in which the Toronto Blue Jays eliminated the Rangers with a 7-6 walk-off win in the 10th inning.

Long before the game was decided, however, the tone was once again set early by the Jays, who battered the Rangers’ starting pitcher for the third consecutive game.

Lewis didn’t take the loss because he was gone so early. He left in the third inning and was charged with five earned runs on five hits. He allowed two homers in the first inning as the Jays erased a brief 1-0 deficit. A two-run homer by Edwin Encarnacion and a solo homer by Russell Martin came on sliders left out over the plate by Lewis.

“I threw two-strike sliders in the first and they put good swings on them and hit homers,” Lewis said. “Other than that I felt like I threw the ball pretty good. Didn’t really get a lot of time out there to settle in, but it’s Game 3, I know it’s going to be a short leash. It is what it is.”

Lewis, Hamels and Darvish combined to allow 16 earned runs in 10 1/3 innings. They allowed 16 hits, including seven homers.

Lewis was taken out after a single and ground-rule double by Josh Donaldson put Toronto up 4-2.

“You don’t really have a whole lot of time to establish stuff. They put good swings on two pitches when I was trying to get back in the count,” he said. “It’s disappointing. What we accomplished throughout the year doesn’t nullify what happened in the last three games. [Teams] get hot at the right time and get the momentum and that’s what [Toronto] did.”

This story was originally published October 9, 2016 at 10:52 PM with the headline "Rangers starting pitchers were no match for Blue Jays’ sluggers."