Rangers 2, Yankees 0

• So, you remember when the Rangers bid $51.7 million for the rights to Yu Darvish? I think this is what they had in mind.
• Yu Darvish's line: 8.1 IP, 7 hits (one of which was a stupid bunt by Derek Jeter that Darvish should have fielded but didn't), 2 walks (one of which was a stupid walk to Russell Martin when he should have been called out on strikes), 10 Ks. 119 pitches, 82 strikes.
• The 82 strikes by Darvish tonight are the third-highest number of strikes thrown by any pitcher in one game this season. Justin Verlander had 85 in a game, Matt Garza had 83. Bartolo Colon also threw 82 strikes in a game.
• Yu Darvish now has a 2.42 ERA on the season.
• Elvis Andrus, when asked by Jim Knox after the game how Yu Darvish is so effective: "He's tall."
• Tweet of the night from Jeff Sullivan:

• In non-Darvish news...Joe Nathan got a 1 pitch save tonight. Coming into the game with one out and one on, Nathan got Alex Rodriguez Raul Ibanez to bounce into a double play on the first pitch he saw, ending the game and giving Nathan save #5 on the season.
• Offensively...bleah. Ian Kinsler hit a home run to lead off the game. The rest of the way, the Rangers had 4 hits and 2 walks. But the Kinsler leadoff homer was all the scoring the Rangers needed.
• Tom Grieve was talking about cookies when the Yankees had the bases loaded and nobody out early in the game. I'm starting to wonder if he's just bored with being a color guy for baseball games.
• With the Rangers up two in the bottom of the 7th, Mike Napoli hit a two out single, bringing Mitch Moreland to the plate. The Yankees countered by going with lefty specialist Clay Rapada. Moreland, with a career 581 OPS against lefties and a 486 OPS overall this season (before tonight's game), was left in the game to face Rapada. I think that says all you need to know about Ron Washington's faith in Brandon Snyder, who supposedly made the team as a righthanded bench bat and first baseman.
• In case you missed it, Emily Jones mentioned Lone Star Ball on the broadcast tonight -- specifically, she cited Brad's piece on Josh Hamilton and the percentage of first pitches that Hamilton swings at. So that was pretty cool.
• Mike Olt had his 5th home run of the season tonight, and Engel Beltre (who had the night off) has a .288/.333/.621 line for Frisco right now.