Well, I tuned in to watch Yu Darvish pitch. Got to see some of the game through mlb.tv as they don’t black anything out during Spring Training. :) Yu Darvish was quite wild. Definitely didn’t pitch like anything worth writing about, but I’ll say something.
His full line is a weird mix. Three innings pitched, just three hits, but four walks. Allowed two earned runs. Struck out three. There were moments where he was as advertised. Then there were moments when he was the second coming of Chan Ho Park. Two of his walks came in the first inning. Both times though he was saved by Torrealba who threw them both out on caught stealings. Had that not happened, things probably would have been a whole lot worse. Second inning had kind of the same thing, as the defense turned a double play behind him. Darvish had this to say after the game:
“If Torrealba wasn’t catching, I probably would have given up 10 runs,”
While I don’t think Wash would have left him out there long enough to embarrass himself that badly, he was right in that Torrealba bailed him out there. While the box scores don’t have total pitches, Yu did labor a bunch, so it wouldn’t surprise me to find out it was around 50 or so. He faced 13 batters in his three innings, which isn’t outrageous, but you would have rather it been nine.
Offensively, we got out early, and got out large. Torrealba plated the first run after he was tripled in by Engel Beltre. However, in the third inning, we busted it wide open with a six spot. In the six spot, the Rangers hit for the cycle as a team. Triple (Olt), Single (Gentry), Solarte (home run), single (Moreland), & double (Torrealba). There was another single and a sac fly for the rest of the offense. But I was feeling good after the six spot. Usually when you’re up 7-0 in the third inning, you’re feeling pretty good.
The next three relievers after Darvish (Uehara, Beimel, & Adams) all gave up two runs each themselves. Only with them it was in their one inning of work. So my good feeling was dashed, and I decided to stop watching, as the Indians coverage was kind of painful to watch. Reminded me of the same kind of crap the local Dallas sports talk stations engage in, and the reason why I don’t listen to any of them. Too much chatter about stuff that has NOTHING to do with the game. Don’t care about your personal life. Care about the game I’m watching.
The Indians actually took the lead in the bottom of the sixth, going up 8-7, after the fourth consecutive inning where they scored two runs. I mostly had checked out at this point due to the “eh” feel of the game, and the Indians announcers. But the Rangers did tie the game up in the 8th with their 8th run. We went 10, and the game ended, as it’s Spring.
To sum this one up, our pitching wasn’t so good. Blew a huge lead, and we came back just enough that we didn’t lose. Didn’t win, either. But I was hoping for more out of Darvish. There’s still time, though.