The Rangers had another big win today, putting up 12 on the Blue Jays and supporting Yu Darvish quite nicely again. All told in the weekend series against Toronto, the Rangers scored 34 runs on 50 hits in the three game series. I’m reminded of Darth Vader saying “Impressive. MOST impressive” at this time. :)
Anyway, after this game was over, Yu Darvish leads the AL in wins with 7. At that rate, he’ll win 21 by the end of the season. Not bad for a first time major league pitcher (I refuse to call these Japanese imports rookies, they’re not). But it wasn’t a clean cut win.
While it didn’t happen as early as the six run first from Friday night, the second inning was the one that gave you that feel. The Rangers put up a SEVEN spot in the bottom of the second against Jays starter and former Phillies farmhand, Kyle Drabek. His overall line was pretty bad. 3IP, 8H, 9R, 3BB, 1K, 2HR, 67P.
The first run of the game, came on a bases loaded walk by Drabek. Of the three guys on base at the time, two of them were there due to walks. Kinsler then doubled, scoring Murphy & Napoli. This was followed by an Elvis Andrus double, scoring Moreland & Kinsler, so all three walks have now scored. Josh just had a harmless popup, and then Adrian Beltre homered scoring Andrus for our seven spot. Micheal Young doubled after that, but nothing happened with that one. Rangers sent 11 men to the plate again. Those are always epic innings. The only innings that jump up as being more epic come from the 30-3 game in Baltimore a couple of years ago, and the bottom of the 8th on April 19, 1996 when the Rangers put up 16 runs in one inning.
Anyway, back to this one. The Rangers scored two more on a home run from mostly dormant Mike Napoli. That was a nice surprise, as I have him on several fantasy teams, and he’s killing me this year. The Jays put up single runs in the 3rd, 4th, & 5th. The Rangers didn’t score again until the bottom of the 7th when we put up a three spot.
Like several recent innings, the bottom of the seventh started out like it wasn’t going to be anything special. Beltre lined out. Young flew out. David Murphy then singled on a ground ball to the third baseman. Cruz then doubled, scoring Murphy, and Mike Napoli homered again (Yay Fantasy league stats!) to finish off the Rangers offense, giving us the 11th & 12th runs of the game.
This time the Rangers pen wasn’t as solid late, as we allowed three more runs in the 8th & 9th (combined) to the Jays. That gave them six runs, which makes the 12 not nearly as dominating, but still. We scored 12 runs. Gotta love that.
Yu Darvish was the benefactor of all this. He was really wild again. Five innings, seven hits, three walks, 3 earned runs, one home run. Still, he ended up with the win, his seventh. I know I should write more about Darvish, but to be honest, I’ve been writing recaps now for the last six games in a row all at once, been at it for about two hours, and it’s after midnight. I’m tired. Darvish won. Leads the league in wins. When’s the last time a Ranger player did that?