After facing retirement, Rangers’ Lewis keeps going

Colby Lewis wasn’t with the Texas Rangers at the open of the past two seasons, though he expected to be joining them early on last April.

After that, he didn’t know.

He didn’t know how well he could pitch in the major leagues on a fake hip, or for how long. When his ERA ballooned to 6.54 at the All-Star break, it didn’t seem like he would be pitching much longer.

But there was Lewis on Tuesday night in a late game against Oakland, taking the ball for the Rangers in their second game of the new season.

The end is out there somewhere for the 35-year-old. But a year after surviving a stare-down with retirement, Lewis appears to be distancing himself from the end of his career.

All he has to do is prove, again, that he can be an effective big-league pitcher.

“As long as I feel like I can stay healthy and continue to get outs and have it be fun, then it’s up to this organization whether I come back, or another organization,” Lewis said. “I’m healthy. I don’t have any pain. I don’t want to put any expectations other than having a healthy season.”

Buoyed by a strong second half, the Rangers welcomed Lewis back to the rotation for $4 million as they try to squeeze the remaining good out of him, and the club has expectations for Lewis.

He probably should be a No. 4 or No. 5 starter, but, thanks to the Yu Darvish injury, he’s Texas’ No. 3 starter behind Derek Holland and Yovani Gallardo. The Rangers need innings, and Lewis has a track record to suggest he will eat them.

Lewis won’t be the pitcher he was in 2010 or 2011, when he became the franchise’s most successful postseason pitcher. While he won’t declare any expectations, he always has said that he expects to pitch seven innings each night, log a quality start, and top 200 innings by the end of the year.

Holes have been poked in his 2014 season and his forecast for this year, primarily because of a major-league-high .339 batting average on balls in play (BABIP), a major-league-high 14 losses and a 5.18 ERA. But he made adjustments and posted a 3.86 ERA and a .267 BABIP after the All-Star break.

Those second-half stats weren’t a fluke. If anything, they’re more telling than the overall numbers.

They were the byproduct of Lewis adapting and tweaking his mechanics to fit his new right hip. He had more range of motion and a longer stride after the resurfacing procedure in 2013, and he needed time to get everything in working order.

“I said it either works or it doesn’t, and I was content with that,” Lewis said. “Anything after that is a blessing.”

Keep in mind that Lewis had Tommy John surgery in high school. He had a shoulder reconstruction in 2004, and at one point in his recovery his shoulder locked up to the point that he couldn’t lift his arm above his head.

More surgery followed.

He had a torn flexor tendon in 2012 and surgery ended his season early, just when his hip was starting to bark.

Yet, Lewis is still standing and taking the ball every fifth day for the Rangers. He’ll consider his family when deciding if he wants to keep pitching, but he also is mindful of a former teammate who pitched into his 40s.

“As of right now, I don’t see why I couldn’t play until I’m like a Darren Oliver,” he said.

With all he has overcome, Lewis deserves the benefit of the doubt when it comes to forecasting his season and how long he can keep pitching effectively.

And there are doubters out there. They might want to check their pessimism.

“Why would we doubt Colby?” third baseman Adrian Beltre said. “He shows every year that he competes. He’s knows how to pitch. We’re all glad and excited he got through that surgery. Now, he has a chance to even do better.”

This story was originally published April 7, 2015 at 9:55 PM with the headline "After facing retirement, Rangers’ Lewis keeps going."