69-48 - Rangers give Darvish the gift of run support, beat Tigers

The Rangers had scored seven runs combined while Yu Darvish was in the game in Darvish's previous six starts. At the same time, Darvish had allowed ten runs combined in those six starts. Darvish did not win any of those games and the Rangers had gone 1-5 in those games because they hate nice things.

The lack of run support for a world class pitcher has been a frustrating aspect to an otherwise gift of a season. You know what they say, never look a gift Rangers Captain in the mouth.

Tonight, however, Darvish got a bunch of runs -- eight, in fact -- to play with as the Rangers and Tigers waited through a nearly three-hour weather delay before playing ball.

The Rangers won 8-5 but Darvish was only responsible for two of those five runs as the Rangers played about as sloppy as you'd imagine a team would for one that played for four hours in 120 degree heat the day before and then waited around for hours to play a game that finished after midnight.

Nevertheless, the Rangers scored a bunch of runs and won the baseball game over a tough Tigers team. Yu Darvish won for the first time since June 3. The Mariners lost to those pesky A's and Texas now has a 7 1/2 game lead in the American League West.

Handball gif of the day:

Player of the Game: Jonathan Lucroy continues to endear himself to Texas as he went 3-for-4 with two home runs and five RBIs. Lucroy has now hit six home runs as a Texas Ranger and driven in 11 runs in his ten games with Texas.

The Rangers also got dingers from Carlos Beltran and Mitch Moreland.

Up Next: The second game of this series pits Cole Hamels against Detroit's left-hander Matt Boyd with the first pitch scheduled for 7:05 pm CT.