When the All-Star rosters were announced on Sunday, there was a Rangers club record seven names headed to the mid-summer classic in Kansas City next week. And there's a chance for an eighth.
Yu Darvish is one of five players who is up for the final spot on the American League roster, which will be determined by, you guessed it, fan vote. The voting ends Thursday afternoon as Darvish will try to outdraw the likes of Jonathan Broxton, Ernesto Frieri, Jason Hammel and Jake Peavy. On Sunday night, Darvish made a pretty good case for himself despite taking a hard-luck loss to the Oakland A's to close out a four-game series. Darvish went seven innings, giving up three runs and striking out a career-high 11 batters with what might have been the filthiest stuff he's had in a single game all year.
Darvish, who already went on record saying he didn't feel he deserves to be an All-Star despite some pretty solid numbers, said it is an honor to be up for the final spot, and in some pretty good company.
"Just being selected among those other guys, they're all good pitchers," Darvish said through an interpreter. "Just being among them is an honor."
So far this season, Darvish is 10-5 with a 3.59 ERA with 117 strikeouts. He's tied with former Ranger great R.A. Dickey with five games this season of 10 or more strikeouts. Darvish said he knows his fate will be decided by the fans, which probably makes him the odds-on favorite just because of the cult following surrounding him, but he's not campaigning.
"The fans get to vote for the last spot," he said. "There's nothing much I can say on that. I'll just stay quiet and see what happens."
So there you go. If you want to vote, you can do so at MLB.com or text the word "VOTE" to 89269. You can vote as many times as your heart desires.
