Thoughts on a 4-2 Rangers win

Rangers 4, Yankees 2

• How about that Yu Darvish, huh?
• Yu Darvish had a very nice game tonight, going 7 innings, allowing 9 hits (2 HRs), walking 1 and striking out 8.  But what was really memorable about Yu tonight was the final out he got...in the top of the 7th, with a 4-2 lead, Yu retired the first two batters, then allowed a Brett Gardner single on a smash that Rougned Odor got a glove on, but that ricocheted into right field.  The Yankees then put on a hit-and-run, and Derek Jeter singled into the empty spot at second when Odor went to cover on the steal.  That brought up Brian McCann as the go-ahead run.  After going to 3-2, Yu got McCann swinging, and reacted with yelling and fist-pumping while walking off the mound.  For someone who is as stoic as Yu normally is, seeing that sort of reaction, particularly in a meaningless late-July game, was particularly surprising...it makes me wonder if that was a pent-up reaction to how frustrating this season has been for Yu.
• Brett Gardner's two homers against Yu today gives him 4 against Yu for his career.  The other two batters with four career HRs against Yu are Mike Trout and Brandon Moss.  Matt Dominguez has 3 HRs against Yu.
• Yu threw 80 of his 108 pitches tonight for strikes.  He's only thrown 80 or more strikes in a game five other times in his career, and I'm pretty sure this is the highest percentage of strikes he's thrown in a game.
• Neal Cotts and Neftali Feliz each threw a shutout inning to close things out, with Feliz picking up his second save of the season.  Feliz still doesn't have the velocity consistently back, but the Rangers seem committed to him as the closer (as if there is a better option right now anyway, right?).
• As for Cotts, this may have been his final appearance as a Ranger.  If so, he goes down as one of the better reclamation projects the Rangers have picked up in recent years.
• There were a lot of Yankees fans in the seats, and the cheers for Derek Jeter seemed to drown out the cheers for anyone on the Rangers.  The past few seasons, when the Rangers were really good, we didn't have to worry about being outnumbered by enemy fans at TBiA.  This season, and Jeter's last appearance in Arlington, appears to have created a situation where Ranger fans are being drowned out by Yankee fans in this series.  That sucks.
• Of course, the Rangers could simply follow up this win with a couple more victories.  That would shut the Yankee fans up.
• The bats weren't great tonight -- no home runs, 8 hits, 2 walks and an HBP -- but they were clumped together, which ended up making them good enough.  All four runs scored in the fifth inning, on an Elvis Andrus single, an Adrian Beltre double, and a J.P. Arencibia two strike, two out, two run RBI single.  When J.P. Arencibia is getting 0-2 hits, its your day.
• J.P. Arencibia's single today is only the third hit he's had all season after going down 0-2.  Interestingly, however, Arencibia has 4 walks this season, and 3 have come after going down 0-2.  I guess pitchers figure, after getting up 0-2, throw Arencibia pitches out of the zone, and he'll eventually swing at one.
• Adrian Beltre's RBI double in the 5th should have been, I thought, a 2-RBI double.  There were two outs, and Alex Rios was at first base (with Elvis at third base)...the ball went into the corner, and I thought for sure Rios would score.  Instead, he ended up at third base.  The replay showed that Rios was taking his time going to second and making the turn...it looked like he thought the ball was going foul, though it may just have been that he was favoring his bad ankle.
• In any case, after Jim Adduci was walked intentionally to bring Arencibia up, it ended up being moot when Arencibia brought Rios and Beltre home.
• Rougned Odor made a couple of really nice plays in the field today.  Its fun watching him play.