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The Yu Darvish who allowed a bunch of runs to the Houston Astros last week because he was too predictable is not Yu Darvish. The Yu Darvish who tirelessly watched video all week to figure out why he didn't have his usual slider is a Yu Darvish you won't see any irrelevent local sports personalities tweet about.
That Yu Darvish is a guy who is going to make the Majors quake over the next seven weeks.
Yu Darvish with his wipeout slider is a pitcher from a different planet, especially when it comes accompanied with the improved fastball command that he has shown in the second half of this season.
Tonight, Yu Darvish dominated for all but his final pitch as he went 6 2/3 innings with three hits, a walk, and one run allowed to go with nine strikeouts.
Unfortunately for Darvish, the Rangers scored their fewest number of runs in a game this month and fewest runs since they also scored twice in a 2-1 win over Cleveland on August 28. Darvish, as is often the case, deserved a few more runs of support to reward his brilliance.
Luckily for the Rangers, they did score one more run than the Angels when Adrian Beltre haunted Anaheim again with his 27th dinger of the season. The blast was a solo dong that came in the top of the 8th as Beltre passed the 5 bWAR threshold again in his endlessly wonderful career.
Despite no W next to Darvish's name, we'll still be placing one in the win column. Maybe more importantly, the Rangers got a start from Yu Darvish that showed the kind of things we hope to see in October.
Player of the Game: Darvish walked the first hitter of the night and then preceded to allowed just two weakly hit singles before Andrelton Simmons tied the game with a two-out, nine-pitch triple that ended Darvish's night. Before that, Darvish had perhaps his best stuff of the season and it was real fun to watch.
Up Next: It's Cole Hamels turn to bounce back as he takes on the Angels against somebody named Daniel Wright of Anaheim. First pitch for this one is set for 8:05 pm CT.