World Series Schedule 2011: Rangers Need Giant Performance from Colby Lewis

The Texas Rangers are in trouble.

They got a decent pitching performance from C.J. Wilson and a great outing from the bullpen, yet still couldn’t get past the St. Louis Cardinals, falling by a final score of 3-2 in Game 1 of the Fall Classic.

Now, manager Ron Washington hands the ball off to Colby Lewis in a game that the Rangers absolutely have to have.

Lewis had an up-and-down season for the Rangers, finishing with a 14-10 record, 4.40 ERA and 1.21 WHIP.

Not exactly ace numbers.

The 32-year-old from Bakersfield, California looked spectacular in his six innings of one-run ball against the Rays, before stumbling to allow four runs in 5.2 innings in his last start against the Tigers.

In other words, Lewis is a bit of a wild card.

One month he has an ERA around 2.0, and the next month it's 5.0.

The Cardinals offense really isn’t that great. They got one big hit from Lance Berkman in Game 1 to drive in two runs, and got the game winning hit on a ball that was an inch away from being caught. Their seven runs per game series average against the Brewers was skewed by an LCS-record nine Milwaukee errors.

The Cardinals' top of the lineup continues to struggle as both Rafael Furcal and John Jay failed to get a hit. That’s the key for Lewis—if he can avoid having runners on base when Albert Pujols and Matt Holliday come up to the plate, life will be much easier.

David Freese continued to have the best two weeks of his life, with a hit, run and RBI—but the law of averages says this guy isn’t too far from his bat hitting a deep freeze. Considering Yadier Molina and Nick Punto aren’t doing anything at the bottom of the lineup, the Cards offense is overrated.

Lewis must add to the top-of-the-lineup woes, and pitch around the deadly threesome of Pujols-Holliday-Berkman.

If you have to walk two of them, so be it.

Lewis is capable of shutting down this Redbirds lineup, and I think he does so by avoiding the sluggers and making the little guys beat him. Oh, and I think the vaunted Rangers are going to score more than two runs of offense this time around.

Game 2 Prediction: Rangers 6, Cardinals 4