Darvish Homers In Rangers Win
CINCINNATI — Yu Darvish is confident in his swing.
On Wednesday night in a National League ballpark, he got a chance to show what he can do.
Darvish hit his first career home run while earning a no-decision and Adrian Beltre drove in the eventual winning run with a double in the eighth, lifting the Texas Rangers to a 6-5 victory over the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park.
“The ball’s loud coming off his bat,” Texas manager Jeff Banister said. “He kept telling me he could hit. He reminded me again when he got back to the dugout.”
With two outs in the fifth, Darvish did the unthinkable when he crushed a 1-2 pitch from Reds starter Tim Adleman.
When the ball landed on the grassy knoll in deep center field, the Rangers’ dugout erupted.
“It wasn’t a cheap homer either, especially for a pitcher coming from the (American League),” Beltre said. “It was nice to see. We won by one run, so it was huge.”
The homer was Darvish’s third career hit. Ian Desmond followed immediately with
his 21st home run to give the Rangers a 5-2 lead.
“Just take the DH off and let me hit,” said Darvish, via an interpreter. “I think I’ll stay away from being a two-way player. When I have a good hit, I want to stay like that. Next at-bat, I might strike out.”
Nomar Mazara started the scoring with a three-run homer as the Rangers earned a split in the two-game interleague series and lead the Seattle Mariners by 6 1/2 games in the American League West.
“I liked the way we swung the bats,” Banister said. “This will give us some momentum going back home. Incredible effort by all our guys.”
Left-hander Jake Diekman (4-2) earned the victory.
Darvish, pitching on six days of rest, didn’t allow a hit until the fifth and wound up yielding five runs (three earned), four hits and five walks while striking out five.
“You saw a fresh fastball,” Banister said. “A little erratic with the breaking ball. Pleased with how he came back with the extra days’ rest.”
Cincinnati, which is 22-15 since the All-Star break — the second-best record in the major leagues, rallied from a three-run deficit to hand Darvish a no-decision.
The Reds’ Ramon Cabrera stroked a ground-rule double to center to drive in a run and make it 5-4 in the sixth. Pinch hitter Ivan De Jesus Jr. tied it with a sacrifice fly later in the inning.
Texas regained the lead in the eighth on Beltre’s two-out RBI double off Blake Wood. It was career hit No. 2,900 for Beltre.
Wood (5-2) took the loss.
Sam Dyson pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning for his 28th save.
After being shut out Tuesday night, the Rangers finally broke through against Reds pitching in the second inning when Mazara launched his three-run blast to put Texas ahead 3-0 against Adleman.
It was Mazara’s 15th home run this season.
“He went out and attacked the zone,” Reds manager Bryan Price said of Adleman. “You look at their lineup and it’s easy to say to yourself, ‘I’ve got to pitch a perfect game if I’m going to have any success.’ The home runs hurt, but overall, I thought he threw the ball fine.”
Darvish had an unusual second inning.
He hit a batter, walked two and allowed two runs, although one was earned.
Despite not getting a hit in the inning, Cincinnati scored on a fielder’s choice grounder and a passed ball to cut its deficit to 3-2.
“Physically, my fastball was really good,” Darvish said. “I wasn’t commanding my other pitches well.”
Darvish didn’t allow a hit until pinch-hitter Tony Renda singled with one out in the fifth.
Adleman allowed five runs (four earned) and three homers in five innings.
“It was just a really bad pitch — something he could handle,” said Adleman of the pitch to Darvish. “Those were big blows — two-out home runs when one pitch could’ve gotten me out of it. It’s definitely disappointing. I gave up a couple of runs I probably should have kept off the board.”
