Yu Darvish pitched this one, and while I wouldn’t quite call it a “hard luck loss” (those are usually scores of 1-0, or 2-1), he did pitch well enough for a win, and didn’t get it. The loss lowered his record for the season to 12-9. Not exactly stellar, but not exactly awful, either. I suspect most people are willing to give him a pass in the first year. Probably will increase the pressure in 2013 for him to do a lot better. Anyway, about this one..
Darvish went seven innings. He allowed just three hits and one walk. Unfortunately, one of those three hits was a two run home run in the first inning to (I believe) former Rangers farmhand, Edwin Encarnacion. That unfortunately was all it took. The Rangers were behind, and never caught up after that. Darvish pitched well. Ball had some nice movement to it, he struck out 10 Blue Jays. But he ran up against a pitcher I know well, J.A. Happ.
Happ used to be a Phillie, and for awhile, he was considered the young gun of the future. He was traded in 2010 to Houston in the Roy Oswalt deal. He was traded again this year to Toronto around the trading deadline, and if he continues to pitch like he did today, he should do well in Toronto. Happ only went six innings in this game, but he allowed just two hits and a single run.
In fact, the Rangers total offense was just four singles. Also had three walks, but not much of it was together, so we only plated two runs. “Scattered offense” certainly applied here.
Felt bad for Darvish, as he probably should have won, but J.A. Happ stole it from him. Oh well.