Take Darvish’s numbers through 5 starts in 2013:

32.2 IP, 13.50 K/9, 2.76 BB/9, 0.00 HR/9, 59.0% GB, 1.20 FIP and a 1.96 xFIP

Obviously the walks are down and Darvish is also being rather selfish in the home run and ground ball departments. But do yourself a favor and just take a look and admire the PITCHf/x data from Darvish’s most recent start against the Angels, courtesy of FanGraphs (link).

Also, I’m sure you’ve already seen this amazing GIF, courtesy of LSB regular DShep:

As evidenced by PITCHf/x data and this amazing GIF, Yu Darvish has a nearly identical release point for all of his pitches. Unsurprisingly, Darvish again displayed a huge gaps in velocity, going from a 61 mph ephus curveball to a 97 mph tailing fastball in one AB, not to mention a widely concluded 80-grade slider in his back pocket.

Yu Darvish isn’t bothered by ballpark affects—his stuff negates such things. Yu Darvish isn’t bothered by in-game situations—he’s the same pitcher with no baserunners on as he is with the bases loaded. Yu Darvish isn’t the pitcher that reminded a scout of Daisuke Matsuzaka after his first two MLB starts—Darvish is a true ace.

Darvish aces the analysis of scouts, he aces the scrutiny of advanced metrics.

Darvish is already everything and more than what the Rangers expected.

$51,703,411

That’s a beautiful number, isn’t it? Perhaps a more beautiful one exists in the number 1—the number of firsts.

Darvish stands a strong chance to be the Rangers’ first ever Cy Young award winner but more importantly, Darvish stands a chance to be the ace on the Rangers’ first ever World Series Champion team. After all, isn’t everything a matter of chance?

A man can dream, can’t he? But boy, Darvish makes dreaming rather easy.

In stark contrast to last Tuesday’s near-perfect game against Houston, Darvish struggled mightily with his control — particularly with his off-speed pitches — over various points of the first few innings, where he recorded all four of his walks. Of course, we can’t talk about Yu Darvish without mentioning strikeouts, where he tallied a total of 6 (5 coming in the first 3 innings), which was his elixir to the pickles he put himself in.

With that noted, the blister he developed in Houston has been reported as the likely cause to his lack of control. I’m not making excuses for the guy, because there’s nothing that wrong with throwing 5 innings and allowing 3 runs — hell it was even enough to be considered a “win” according to the paradigm of what constitutes wins and losses. Because if you watched him pitch, there was clearly something going awry, which is why it was so necessary that his offense bail him out.

Which you know, since Darvish got the win, that they did.

Ian Kinsler was the real star of the game, getting on base a perfect four times in four plate appearances — including the decisive hit of the game — an opposite-field 3-run homer to extend the Ranger lead to 7-3. Kinsler finished the night 3-3 with a walk, a home run and two singles, driving in 4 of the 7 total Rangers’ runs.

Trailing 2-0 in the top of the first, Lance Berkman hit a 2-run jack into the Texas bullpen in right-center to even things up in the early going. Two batters later, David Murphy launched a solo shot of his own to put the Rangers ahead 3-2, giving them a lead they ultimately would not relinquish.

Aside the troika of Kinsler, Berkman and Murphy — whom accounted for all of Texas’s run output — the real gut-check performance came from the backend of the bullpen.

Leading 4-3 in the 6th, Robbie Ross threw a scoreless, albeit dicey (2 hits allowed) inning.

In the 7th, now up 7-3, Tanner Scheppers quickly retired the side, though he allowed a hit. He went out again in the 8th and was even more dominant, striking out the first two hitters before allowing a harmless grounder back to the mound. He was sharp for the third straight time out, and more importantly, efficient with his strike-to-ball ratio.

Fittingly, after a two-out Albert Pujols single in the 9th, Josh Hamilton stepped to the plate to a raucous, omnipresent roar of boos from the Arlington faithful that Hamilton himself made even stronger by trolling them through the media.

I think Josh Hamilton desperately wanted to stay with the Rangers, but Jon Daniels simply didn’t believe he was worth anywhere near the amount of money he desired;

So it’s funny, and with perhaps a shade of cosmic irony trickled in, that Hamilton grounded out to Ian Kinsler’s 2nd base area, with Elvis Andrus being the one to record the assist (because of the shift).

It makes me smile because unlike Hamilton, Kinsler and Andrus did receive under-market extensions, and they signed. They wanted to play here, to win here, and the Rangers wanted them, too.

Ian and I discussing the Elvis Andrus‘ deal and stuff

Adrian Beltre hit a clutch two-out home run in the 7th, Ian Kinsler drove in the go-ahead run in the 8th, and the Rangers defeated the division rival Angels 3-2 in their home opener on Friday afternoon.

Both starting pitchers twirled performances worthy of wins, with LAA’s Jason Vargas navigating through 5.2 IP allowing 1 run on 8 hits, and Texas’ Derek Holland working 7 strong innings of his own, allowing 2 runs.

However, like in most evenly-matched games — which going into the season I think the majority would consider the Angels and Rangers evenly-matched — it came down to how well each bullpen performed.

In the bottom of the 7th, Angel manager Mike Scioscia chose to leave in RHP Garrett Richards with a 2-1 lead after attaining the final out the prior inning (when he relieved Jason Vargas). It seemed like the right thing to do, particularly given the unpredictable state of their hapless bullpen. After inducing quiet ground outs from the first two hitters of the frame — Elvis Andrus and Lance Berkman — Richards had Ranger cleanup hitter Adrian Beltre down in the count, 1-2. Texas’s odds of winning didn’t look good: 1-2, two out, no one on base. Not exactly the most desirable offensive scenario to find yourself in.

Then Beltre did what Beltre does, lining a belt-high, center-cut Garrett Richards fastball into the left field seats.

Just like that, the game was tied at 2. With one swing of the bat, the Rangers’ win expectancy spiked from just 29.6% all the way up to 52.2%.

In the top of the 8th, Ron Washington decided to roll with one of his half-dozen or so “show me something, god dammit” bullpen arms, Tanner Scheppers, who has actually looked markedly better in his first couple regular season appearances than he did in Surprise, AZ. Yesterday went: strikeout-groundout-flyout. 10 pitches — 7 for strikes. Inning over.

(One positive you can take out of Scheppers’ first two outings is that he’s throwing boatload of strikes. 16 of his 20 pitches thus far in 2013 have gone for strikes. We’re obviously dealing with an extremely limited sample here, but it shouldn’t take very long to see if he has “it” or not given his highly-talented, frequently erratic skill set.)

In the bottom half of the 8th, Scott Downs came in to pitch for the Angels, naturally, as two of the next three Ranger hitters — A.J. Pierzynski and Mitch Moreland — were left-handed. After AJP was retired, Craig Gentry slapped a base hit to right field, and subsequently stole 2nd base because that’s just how Kitten Face rolls.

Then, Jeff Baker — who pinch-hit for Mitch Moreland — struck out, setting the table for Ian Kinsler to step up and be a hero in the home opener. And in a brief moment of glory, Kinsler came through, lashing an outside fastball into the opposite field where, fittingly, Josh Hamilton fielded it and made an 80-grade throw to the plate, only to be bested by the unstoppable burners of Craig Gentry.

The throw appeared to beat Gentry — who, on 2nd base with two outs, rushed unabated to home plate on contact because the ball was hit beyond the infield — but it short-hopped catcher Chris Iannetta to the backstop, making the point moot.

The Rangers (3-1) went up 3-2, and eventually won by the same score. In the 9th, Joe Nathan came in to seal the win, netting him his 1st save of the season.

The Angels (1-3), conversely, lost the game due to something they’ve grown eerily familiar with in the past few seasons: bullpen woes. We know they have a great offense, maybe the best offense in the league, but can they go out and win a game on the road having scored only 2-3 runs? Yesterday they couldn’t;

I know they are probably one of the best-5 teams in the American League, and they are going to have an offensive field-day with some of baseball’s bottom feeders, but having seen how their pitching staff stacks up, with only one solid starting option (Jered Weaver), a pretty decent #3 in C.J. Wilson, and a couple pretty productive bullpen pieces (Sean Burnett, Ernesto Frieri), it’s not terribly daunting.

The early returns on the 2013 season are nice (since I can’t think of a better word than “nice” to describe it). A 3-1 start is positive, and as we’ve seen a couple times the last few years, it can be crucial to get off to a strong start and put other teams in a hole. The Angels in particular have had early-season troubles in recent seasons, so let’s hope those trends continue.