AMERICAN LEAGUE
Texas Rangers hurler Yu Darvish of
Japan came within one out of pitching a rare perfect game on Tuesday, retiring 26 batters before surrendering a ninth-inning single to Houston’s Marwin Gonzalez.
Darvish struck out 14 in a 7-0 victory, but his bid for a slice of Major League Baseball history was foiled by Gonzalez, who smacked a single up the middle that rolled between the pitcher’s legs.
Texas shortstop Elvis Andrus could not stop it either and with Gonzalez on base, Darvish — who had thrown 111 pitches — was relieved by Michael Kirkman.
“I think my teammates were more disappointed than I was,” said Darvish, who left the field to an ovation from the crowd of 22,637.
“I didn’t want to be the last out,” Gonzalez said. “I was trying to look for a good pitch to hit and put it in play. That’s all I was thinking.”
Ian Kinsler hit a two-run homer for Texas, who notched 12 hits. Lance Berkman had two runs batted in, while Nelson Cruz, and Andrus and Mitch Moreland drove in a run each in Texas’ first win of the fledgling season.
Darvish struck out nine of the first 12 batters he faced, baffling the Astros with a blistering fastball and an array of breaking balls.
He got valuable support in the fifth inning when Houston’s Chris Carter led off with a fly to deep left that David Murphy caught against the wall.
“I thought it was a home run,” Darvish said.
The Astros’ Rick Ankiel followed with a line drive that Moreland grabbed, before Darvish struck out Justin Maxwell to end the inning.
It marked the ninth time in his first 30 Major League starts that Darvish has struck out at least 10.
In the bottom of the ninth, Darvish induced Jason Castro and Carlos Corporan to ground out, before Gonazalez ended his night.
“You look at the stuff that he was featuring tonight and it would not have been a shock to anyone in the ballpark if he threw a perfect game,” Astros manager Bo Porter said.
Darvish’s narrow miss of the perfect game left Hideo Nomo, who did it twice, as the only Japanese-born pitcher to throw a no-hitter in the major leagues.
There have been just 23 perfect games — a victory in which no opposing player reaches base — in Major League Baseball history.
A record three of them came last season. The Chicago White Sox’s Philip Humber accomplished the feat on April 21 last year against Seattle, while San Francisco’s Matt Cain pitched a perfect game against Houston on June 13. Felix Hernandez tossed a perfect game for the Seattle Mariners against Tampa Bay on August 15.
ORIOLES 7, RAYS 4
In St Petersburg, Florida, Adam Jones keyed a seventh-inning rally with a go-ahead, two-run double and Chris Davis followed with a three-run homer to help Baltimore open the season with a victory over Tampa Bay.
Matt Wieters homered early off American League Cy Young Award winner David Price. Wieters later drew an intentional walk from reliever Jake McGee (0-1), before Davis’ towering shot over the right-field wall broke open the game and silenced a sellout crowd of 34,078 at Tropicana Field.
Jason Hammel (1-0) allowed three runs and three hits in six innings. Jim Johnson pitched a scoreless ninth for the save.
Ben Zobrist hit a solo homer for the Rays and put them ahead with a sacrifice fly in the sixth.
Tuesday’s other results:
‧ Indians 4, Blue Jays 1
‧ Mariners 7, Athletics 1
NATIONAL LEAGUE
AP, LOS ANGELES
Madison Bumgarner allowed two hits over eight innings, giving the San Francisco Giants a 3-0 win over the Dodgers, while overshadowing the debut of high-priced Los Angeles pitcher Ryu Hyun-jin on Tuesday night.
Bumgarner (1-0) struck out six and walked none in the second straight gem at Dodger Stadium. The only hits were a pair of doubles by Andre Ethier and A.J. Ellis.
Left-hander Clayton Kershaw homered and pitched a four-hit shutout in the Dodgers’ 4-0 victory on opening day Monday.
Sergio Romo worked a perfect ninth to earn his first save of the season.
Ryu’s debut helped draw 45,431 fans to see the left-hander, who signed a US$36 million, six-year deal with the team in December last year. Ryu (0-1) gave up three runs — one earned — and 10 hits in 6-1/3 innings. He struck out five, walked none and threw 80 pitches against the defending World Series champions.
CARDINALS 6, DIAMONDBACKS 1
In Phoenix, Arizona, Matt Holliday, Pete Kozma and Jon Jay homered as St Louis beat Arizona to even their season-opening series.
Jaime Garcia (1-0) gave up two hits, one of them a homer by Miguel Montero, in 5-2/3 innings for the Cardinals. Holliday’s two-run shot off Trevor Cahill broke a 1-1 tie in the sixth inning.
Kozma added a leadoff homer and Jay a two-run drive off the right-field foul pole, both off reliever Heath Bell in the seventh.
Kozma’s homer came on Bell’s first pitch with the Diamondbacks. Matt Carpenter doubled twice for St Louis.
Cahill (0-1) allowed three runs and five hits in 5-2/3 innings. He struck out seven.
Tuesday’s other result:
‧ Rockies 8, Brewers 4
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