Yu almost had it

If someone had asked me before the season started who I thought would be the first pitcher to toss a no-hitter this season, without hesitating, I would've said Texas' Yu Darvish. After retiring the first 26 batters he faced last season when pitching against the Houston Astros back on April 2, Texas' ace Yu Darvish watched out no. 27 go right between his legs into center field for a hit, erasing what would've been the 23rd perfect game in MLB history. Despite the disappointment that he had to have felt coming oh so close to making history, there he stood with a smile on his face after flirting with a perfect game. Though he would fail to etch his name into the record books and reach baseball immortality on this night, Darvish, who has more than lived up to the hype since transitioning his game from Japan to the Major League's just two seasons ago, has established himself among the top pitchers in the game today. 

And on Friday night, the Japanese All-Star was once again on top of his game and appeared to be on his way to pitching a game for the ages in Arlington. From the first inning on, Darvish was hitting his target and had several pitches working for him which would spell doom for the defending World Series champion Boston Red Sox who would have their work cut out for them. At one point in the game, Darvish hit a streak of six consecutive strikeouts before eventually finishing the game with 12 K's, while retiring the first 20 batters he faced. And then what appeared to be a harmless fly ball to shallow right field off the bat of Big Papi David Ortiz, fell in between second baseman Rougned Odor and outfielder Alex Rios as both players looked at one another thinking the other one was going to make the catch. Darvish would catch a break, however, as the call would be ruled an error by the official scorer. A rare call given the ball failed to touch either player. Rios would be the one changed with the error, one any teammate would be willing to sacrifice if it meant their pitcher still had a chance at making history. 

Though the error wouldn't break Darvish completely, it would have an effect on how he pitched the rest of the game as he went on to walk two of the next three batters he faced. But even then, the 27-year old hurler still had a no-hit bid in tact. That was until he reached the dreaded ninth inning. With 26 outs recorded and a goose egg in the hit column for the Red Sox, Ortiz came up one last time as the only batter standing in the way of Darvish and his no-hitter. But even with the shift on, playing Ortiz to pull, Big Papi who just innings earlier was the cause of an error that wiped out any chance of a perfect game, snuck a ground ball single in between the second baseman and shortstop on the 126th pitch on the night by Darvish who came just one out shy of a no-hitter for the second time in as many seasons. It would be the final batter of the night for Yu who was pulled by skipper Ron Washington and received a thunderous ovation by the 45,000+ in attendance who stood and applauded Darvish's masterful performance. For the second time after nearly making history, Darvish would be forced to watch another man record that 27th out that he came so close to recording as Rangers reliever Alexi Ogando retired the next batter, sealing Texas' 8-0 win and leaving Darvish still seeking his first complete-game.

Darvish joins hurler Dave Stieb as the only pitchers to have multiple no-hit bids broken up with 2-outs in the ninth inning. Stieb had it happen three times while a member of the Toronto Blue Jays, including twice in back to back starts in 1988. With the season still young and plenty of starts left in the promising career of Yu Darvish, I've got a feeling the third time will be a charm. 


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