Yu Darvish completes the Texas Rangers

Arlington – It has taken 73 starts, but Texas Rangers pitcher Yu Darvish was finally able to complete his first major league game.  He’s tried several times over his career so far even to the point of getting his pitch count in the 120’s.

Over his career he made it to the final frame 3 times before.  But he wasn’t able to get the final out to record a complete game.

Last year to took a perfect game down to the 27th batter.  On April 2, 2013 during the Houston Astros game Yu Darvish was about to finish off a perfect game, but Marwin Gonzalez spoiled things with a single right up the middle.  Close enough that if it was a little slower or Darvish would have reacted a bit faster he would have had time to make the play to record the out.

This season on May 9th, Darvish again went deep in the 9th inning trying to finish a no-hitter against the Boston Red Sox.  That game was a little weird though.  In the 7th inning David Ortiz hit a fly ball to center-right.  Alex Rios and Rougned Odor went to make a play on the ball, but due to the crowd noise Odor didn’t hear Rios calling him off.  The ball ended up dropping and was ruled an error.  That error was that talk of Twitter and ESPN the next day and Ortiz wasn’t happy about it.

Jun 11, 2014; Arlington, TX, USA; Texas Rangers starting pitcher Yu Darvish (11) celebrates after a 6-0 complete game shut-out against the Miami Marlins at Globe Life Park in Arlington. Mandatory Credit: Jim Cowsert-USA TODAY Sports

As fate would have it, Ortiz was the last batter that Darvish would face that day for the final out to complete the game and the no-hitter.  Ortiz who was probably still fuming after that hit was ruled an error was determined to break up the no-hitter against Yu Darvish.  With a 2-1 count in the 9th with two outs that is exactly what Ortiz did.  After that hit, Ron Washington pulled Darvish from the game, meaning another complete game was pulled from his grasps.

Finally last night at a time the Texas Rangers needed to stop another losing streak Yu Darvish did exactly what they needed.   This is the third time this season Darvish has stopped a losing streak and did it by virtue of a shutout.  The Rangers now have 12 shutouts on the year and 5 of those are with the help of Darvish.

Darvish has truly established himself as the ace of the organization and is quickly making a name for himself in the majors.   A note to any fan of baseball in general regardless if you like the Texas Rangers or not, any time Yu Darvish pitches be sure to watch.  He always puts on an amazing display of his talent, does everything to help his team win and, something special is likely to happen.