Rangers sweep aside Royals behind Yu Darvish’s best start in years
Yu Darvish pitched eight innings for the first time since June 28, 2014, and struck out eight batters to earn the victory as the Rangers swept the Royals with a 5-2 win Sunday afternoon at Globe Life Park.
The Rangers improved to 9-10, one-game below .500 for the first time this season
How Rangers pitchers fared: The Royals struck Darvish with two solo homers in the third inning. Mike Moustakas went deep to right and Jorge Bonifacio homered to deep left to make it 2-0. After a single followed the back to back homers, Darvish retired the next eight hitters and nine of the next 10. He retired the final seven batter he faced and threw a season-high 113 pitches. Matt Bush pitched a perfect ninth to earn his first save of the year.
How Rangers hitters fared: Elvis Andrus, hitting in the clean-up spot for the first time in his career, singled in Shin-Soo Choo with two outs in the third to pull the Rangers to within 2-1. Royals’ starter Jason Hammel loaded the bases with no outs in the fourth after walking Ryan Rua and hitting Joey Gallo and Robinson Chirinos. He then walked in the tying run on four pitches to Jurickson Profar. Carlos Gomez’s fielder’s choice to shortstop scored Gallo to give the Rangers a 3-2 lead. Gallo’s solo homer to left-center field in the sixth gave the Rangers a 4-2 lead. Chirinos homered in the eighth to make it 5-2. Chirinos homered three times in the four-game series.
Notables: Profar’s single in the sixth snapped an 0 for 14 stretch ... Bonifacio’s first major league hit was a single in the first inning and his first major league homer came in the third ... Royals’ starter Jason Hammel struck out four consecutive hitters between the first and second innings. His previous high in strikeouts for an entire game this season was four. He had five Sunday ... last time Darvish threw 113 pitches in a game was Aug. 9, 2014 against the Astros when he went only four innings.
Stefan Stevenson: 817-390-7760, @StevensonFWST
This story was originally published April 23, 2017 at 5:10 PM with the headline "Rangers sweep aside Royals behind Yu Darvish’s best start in years."