Apr 6, 2014; St. Petersburg, FL, USA; Texas Rangers starting pitcher Yu Darvish (11) throws a pitch during the first inning against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Today the Texas Rangers needed a win after dropping the first two against the Rays at Tropicana field, last nights in heartbreaking fashion. Today looked like it could be another one of those heartbreaking losses for Yu Darvish who had a brilliant performance (7 IP, 6 K, o ER) including being the fastest major league pitcher in history to 500 strikeouts, but he was saved by the bat of Elvis Andrus. The Texas Rangers are headed to Boston for a three game set to start the next week of baseball, and it would be a bad idea to leave Tampa Bay on a three game losing streak.
The West is not looking like it will at the end of the season with Seattle Houston sitting at the top and the Angels and Athletics sitting at the bottom right now, but starting 2-4 would be a bad thing for a Texas team that is clearly struggling to pitch well consistently right now. Yu Darvish brought back a little of that consistency today by getting himself back into the lineup and going seven innings of shut out baseball. Now it will be up to Tanner Scheppers tomorrow to try to extend the winning streak to 2 against the mighty Bo Sox.
Yu Darvish is one of the favorites for the Cy Young this season and today he showed why. The Rays scored 13 runs in the first two games of the series, and Yu Darvish held them to zero today, a feat that I think he will do on many occasions this season. He seemed to have command of all his pitches, and if he can do that on a regular basis, I think we are going to see a very, very successful season from the right hander. Yes, Darvish is back and all is right with the world again. Hopefully Scheppers, Martin Perez and Robbie Ross can keep the good time rolling in Boston this week!