The train just keeps on rolling right on through the Texas Rangers' season.
Once again, a Ranger has been injured, seemingly while sleeping, as Yu Darvish awoke in his Minneapolis hotel bed late Tuesday morning with neck stiffness and has been scratched from his Tuesday night start against the Minnesota Twins.
Several media reports on Twitter say the Rangers' starter will be Scott Baker, who last started for the Rangers on Friday, meaning he'll be pitching on three days of rest after going six innings and throwing 87 pitches while allowing six runs to the Detroit Tigers in a loss. So that doesn't make an entirely great amount of sense, but being the late nature of the news coming out, it's not like the Rangers can fly someone in from Dallas or Austin in time to start. That means, even if Baker is good against his former team, the Rangers will be in for a bullpen start and Baker likely won't go more than four innings.
Of course you'll remember Darvish started the season on the disabled list and missed his Opening Day start with neck stiffness after this same thing happened to him in Arizona. He didn't pitch from March 17 to April 6, when he made his season debut and was stellar.
The club announced Darvish will undergo a precautionary MRI in Minneapolis on Tuesday, but didn't know anymore about Darvish's injury or his short-term future or if he'll miss his next start, as well. This season, the Rangers' ace is 4-2 with a 2.35 ERA.
Darvish joins the club of Matt Harrison, Jurickson Profar and Leonys Martin as players who have been injured in their sleep in what has been an injury-filled Rangers season to epic proportions.
