ARLINGTON, Texas — Yu-phoria swept through Rangers Ballpark on Tuesday night with every pitch right-hander Yu Darvish threw against the New York Yankees.
And while Darvish's pitching gem brought a sellout crowd to its feet as he exited with a 2-0 lead with one out in the top of the ninth inning, Darvish didn't see it as that big of a deal.
"I look at every game the same," Darvish said through his translator. "As long as we win I'm happy. Tonight's game had a lot of things, but it's just one game we won."
Indeed, the 2-0 win that was secured after Joe Nathan recorded a one-pitch save by getting a double-play grounder may have been just one victory. But it also served as the unofficial arrival party for Darvish.
The right-hander (3-0) dominated the most storied franchise in baseball, striking out 10 and allowing just seven hits over his 8 1/3 innings of work. He made pitches when he had too, getting out of a bases-loaded jam with no outs in the third inning and working around a leadoff double an inning later.
Once Nathan recorded his fifth save on the year, the start by Darvish could be better put in perspective.
The Rangers, who have the best record in baseball at 14-4, shut out the Yankees for the first time since Aug. 16, 2000. The 8-1/3 shutout innings by the prized rookie was the deepest a Texas pitcher had carried a shutout into a game against the Yankees since Bob Tewksbury pitched a complete-game shutout on July 7, 1995.
"Awesome," Rangers manager Ron Washington said of the outing. "You know I said he just keeps getting better every time he takes the ball. Tonight he used everything he had against that team, and he had to with the type of hitters they were. And he was effective, very effective."
That effectiveness came from Darvish establishing Strike 1 and mixing his pitches. The 10 strikeouts, a season high for a Texas starter, came on everything —fastball, curveball, slider, splitter. Washington said Darvish threw everything at the Yankees but the "kitchen sink.”
If he would have thrown the sink at the Yankees on Wednesday, it would have gone for a strike. Darvish, who had walked at least four batters in each of his first three starts, threw 82 of his 119 pitches for strikes and walked only two in his fourth.
He came up big in key situation, too. With Texas leading 1-0 in the third, the Yankees loaded the bases with no outs. Darvish said he was hoping to give up just one or two runs in the frame. That didn't happen, though, as he struck out Curtis Granderson and then got Alex Rodriguez to pound a sinker to third base to start an inning-ending double play.
Texas pushed the lead to 2-0 in the bottom of the third on a Josh Hamilton RBI single but the Yankees got a leadoff double from Robinson Cano to open the fourth. Darvish responded by striking out Mark Teixeira and Nick Swisher before Raul Ibanez grounded out.
"I was able to get the strikeouts when I needed to or wanted to," said Darvish. "I was able to get the groundouts when I needed to."
Darvish wasn't able to complete the shutout though as Nick Swisher singled to left with one out to open the ninth. That was it for Darvish, as he exited with a tip of his cap to the 47,085 at the game. He didn't know that was a custom in his first start at the park on April 9 and didn't do it. He left that game after allowing five runs in an 11-5 victory over Seattle.
His start left an impression on the visitors, too.
"You hear a lot of guys get hyped and he was everything that you'd heard," said Teixeira, who was 0 for 4 with a strikeout. "We had a game plan to make him throw strikes, and he definitely did that. If you tried to be patient, you're down 0-1, 0-2. If you tried to be aggressive, every pitch seemed like it started in the zone, then moved out of the zone."
Darvish had shutout stuff but came two outs short of that. Like everything else about Tuesday, he took it in stride.
"When I went out for the ninth inning I was asked if I wanted to finish the game and said ‘Yeah,’" Darvish said. "When I went out there, I didn't think about complete game or anything like that; I was just going to give it my all."
That's the kind of answer that sits well with Darvish's teammates, who played a role in the gem. Elvis Andrus made a spectacular play on a Russell Martin grounder in the fifth inning. Third baseman Adrian Beltre was also big by starting the double play in the third. And Ian Kinsler and Andrus started the double play to end the game.
It was all done in support of Yu.
"He was great," Michael Young said. "He was establishing the fastball, commanding it on both sides of the plate. With his stuff, if he gets ahead with the fastball, he has a lot of weapons to put guys away deep in the count and that's what he was able to do tonight."
And Darvish hinted that he may be just hitting his stride.
"I'd like to think there is more in me," he said.
Let the Yu-phoria continue.
