Sunday it was Nomar Mazara picking up his first major league hit. Last night it was Brett Nicholas, with a double to right center. Nicholas ended up getting two hits and scoring two runs in the Rangers 7-3, fourteen-hit win over the Seattle Mariners.

Every time you think Colby Lewis is done, he proves you wrong. Every time you think he is out of gas, he finds another gear. Every time you doubt him, he makes you eat your words. Every time you think Colby is human, he shows you he isn’t.

Colby Lewis is animatronic. He had his shoulder rebuilt in 2004. He had his elbow rebuilt in 2012. He had his hip rebuilt in 2013.

He is the quintessential bionic man, the fictional TV character worth six million dollars.

Colby earns six million dollars this season. Coincidence? No.

He defies all the odds.

He had a 10-9 record in 2003—with an ERA of 7.30. He won fourteen games in 2011—with an ERA of 4.80. And then, even more unlikely, last season he somehow won seventeen games—with an ERA of 4.66.

Last night, he started the first looking like he couldn’t get anybody out. Because he couldn’t. But after what seemed like a hundred-pitch first inning, only one run scored. Then the bionics kicked in.

The next thing you know, he had retired fourteen batters in a row, and it should have been fifteen but he forgot to cover first on an infield dribbler to Moreland to lead off the sixth.

In the end, Colby got a win. It was a seventh quality start for a Rangers pitcher.

Somehow Lewis survived. As he always does. He is just programmed that way.

*****
TONIGHT’S GAME

Derek Holland (0-0, 5.40) vs. Wade Miley (0-0, 7.50)
Game time: 9:10 pm

How the Mariners hit against Holland.
How the Rangers hit against Miley.