It seemed Tuesday night might be the night Texas Rangers ace Yu Darvish broke out his winless funk. After the Rangers' offense temporarily woke up in Monday's 8-7 win, it seemed Darvish might finally get some run support that has been absent in his previous starts, as he hasn't won a game since May 16 in that epic clash-turned-blowout between he and Detroit's Justin Verlander.
Darvish has now gone six starts without recording a win, and actually got a decision on Tuesday, but it was the wrong kind as he fell to 7-3 on the season and is now 0-2 with four no-decisions in that six-start span.
Darvish fanned 10 in six innings of work but also gave up five runs — four of those earned — while struggling with his control and falling victim to a patient A's lineup that made him throw strikes and rack up over 100 pitches in his six innings.
Darvish is leading the world in strikeouts with 137 and had yet another double-digit K night on Tuesday, a feat that is becoming commonplace for the second-year Japanese pitcher, but strikeouts don't mean much when you allow home runs and five runs in six innings.
Darvish fell to 1-4 in his career against Oakland, which seems to be one of the few teams that has the Texas ace's number.
"They are a very good team offensively," Darvish said through his translator. "And they are hard to get outs against."
Things don't get much easier for Darvish, as he'll look to pick up a win for the first time in seven starts on Sunday against the team with baseball's best record, the St. Louis Cardinals.
