Japanese ace Yu Darvish threw 6 1/3 strong innings and got plenty of support from Texas bats in the Rangers’ 14-3 rout of the Los Angeles Angels.
Darvish gave up three runs on seven hits with one walk and nine strikeouts, picking up his second win of the season.
“It’s better to have run support than not having run support but my approach doesn’t change,” Darvish said. “After the second inning I had about 50 pitches so my mindset was to get as deep into the game as possible and I was glad I was able to do it.”
Darvish was part of a frightening moment in the fifth inning, when he winged Angels slugger Albert Pujols in the bill of his batting helmet with a fastball.
Pujols went down, but hopped up and stayed in the game.
“I had two strikes on him so it was a waste pitch,” Darvish said. “Unfortunately it hit him in the helmet.”
Angels pitcher Michael Kohn opened the next inning with an inside fastball that had Rangers batter Alex Rios jumping back from home plate.
Rios thought it was retaliation and “not right”.
Angels manager Mike Scioscia said Kohn wasn’t trying to hit Rios but was “trying to pitch aggressively inside — like Darvish was”.
Texas bolted to a 3-0 lead in the first inning. With runners on the corners and one-out, Prince Fielder doubled to right to score Choo Shin-Soo.
After Rios walked, Michael Choice singled to bring another run across and JP Arencibia capped the inning with a sacrifice fly to left field.
The Angels responded with a brace of runs in the bottom of the inning. Erick Aybar homered to open the inning and Pujols followed with a home run to make it 3-2.
Texas added two more runs in the second. With runners on the corners and no outs, Daniel Robertson grounded into a force out to score Elvis Andrus. After Adrian Beltre flew out, Fielder doubled home Robertson for a 5-2 lead.
Arencibia hit a solo homer in the third and in the fourth Choice slugged a three-run blast giving the Rangers a 9-2 lead.
Mike Trout’s sacrifice fly in the seventh inning pulled the Angels within 9-3, but the Rangers added five runs in the ninth — with Rios delivering a three-run triple in the final frame.