Mr. Consistency: Never mind Adrian Beltre hit two home runs, he stole his first base of the season, giving him one steal a year for the last six years.

We’re down to the last three weeks of the season. The Rangers head to Houston after going 3-4 in Seattle and Los Angeles. But the losing record in the first two of a three-city road trip doesn’t really matter much at this point, with this lead.

The Rangers are merely waiting to pop the corks.

Yesterday the Rangers ran up against Jered Weaver who seems to own Texas at home. And to help matters along, four of the nine regulars got a day off.

Yesterday was all about Colby Lewis. He just came back from the lab, was just uncrated and re-booted. He had a little rust but otherwise had a very promising outing, giving up just three solo home runs. A full-strength Rangers offense should be able to overcome that.

It was his first start since June 21, one start removed from throwing a perfect game through eight-and-two-thirds innings in Oakland.

He threw eighty-six pitches pain free, striking out five and walking just two in machine-like fashion. A little oil on the joints and he will be okay.

All joking aside about Lewis being a cyborg, he showed he was very human yesterday, being moved to tears while being overcome with the emotion in a pre-game ceremony to remember 9/11.

It was a big occasion for the country and an important one for Lewis and the Rangers. A healthy Colby Lewis goes a long way toward curbing Pepto Bismol sales come October.

*****
TODAY’S GAME:

Martin Perez (10-10, 4.25) vs. Doug Fister (12-11, 4.14)
Game time: 7:10

How the Rangers hit against Fister.
How the Astros hit against Martin.