Darvish Leaves Seattle With Shin Bruise, Another Loss

The Rangers’ Yu Darvish continued to struggle in his first start of the second half on Sunday, but the good news is that he’s fine after taking a line drive, off the bat of the Mariners’ Dustin Ackley, off the shin in the second inning of Saturday’s loss.

Darvish stayed in the game and made it as far as the seventh before being pulled, but suffice it to say, he didn’t have his best stuff. The 25-year-old Japanese national gave up seven runs over 6 1/3 innings to Seattle, tying a career high, and fell to 10-6 on the season. He has now lost five of his last nine starts.

The good news in all this: Darvish doesn’t have a broken leg as a result of the aforementioned line drive, as he feared he might, but a bruise. Despite his recent struggles, this is good news for the Rangers, who believe Darvish will eventually come out of this late funk and be all the better for having gone through it.

“This little adversity will only make him stronger,” Manager Ron Washington said, per the Dallas Morning News. “It’s OK to have some doubt, but we’re not going to let him lose his confidence.

“Sometimes things fall into place. Sometimes, you’ve got to put them in place.”