Here's something you don't see everyday. Or, more specifically: Something you never see.
Rangers starter Colby Lewis allowed five home runs Thursday against the Orioles. He didn't allow any other hit. That's the fifth time in MLB history a pitcher has done so (via Hardball Talk).
And now, the introduction of Lewis' outing as the pitching equivalent of Rob Deer. Lewis also had a whopping 12 strikeouts. None of the previous four pitchers who allowed five homers and zero other hits struck out as many, so this is a bit of a major-league record.
Lewis only walked one, Matt Wieters. Somewhat fittingly, Wieters would score on a Wilson Betemit homer.
So the Orioles had 26 at-bats against Lewis Thursday (he faced 28 batters, but walked one and hit one; there was a double-play, but one batter reached on an error). Their batting average was .192. They struck out 12 times in those 26 at-bats, too, but also clubbed five homers.
Rob Deer -- and we can probably throw in the likes of Dave Kingman, Mark Reynolds and Adam Dunn, right? -- would be proud.
For those who don't remember Deer, first of all, I feel bad for you. Secondly, he hit .220 in his major-league career with 162-game averages of 32 homers and 198 strikeouts. Perhaps his most hilarious line came in 1991, when he hit .179 with 80 hits, 25 of which were homers. He struck out 175 times.
The Orioles won 6-5, despite a furious ninth-inning rally by the Rangers.
For more baseball news, rumors and analysis, follow @EyeOnBaseball on Twitter, subscribe to the RSS feed and "like" us on Facebook.
