TORONTO — Texas Rangers starter Yu Darvish is not an easy guy to hit. He cuts, runs and sinks the ball, sitting at 95-m.p.h. with his heater, slashing the strike zone with an 84-m.p.h. slider, and occasionally flipping up a 73-m.p.h. curveball when the mood strikes.
Darvish came into his start against the Toronto Blue Jays this weekend carrying a 2.83 ERA and 11.2 K/9. Opposition batters were hitting a point above the Mendoza Line against him. It had been over a month since he’d given up more than three runs in an outing. In other terms: he’s pretty good.
So, when the Japanese right-hander gives you an opportunity, you better take advantage of it. That’s just what Jose Bautista did in the fifth inning Saturday, clobbering a hanging first-pitch slider 381 feet to left for a three-run shot as part of his team’s bat-around inning against one of the best pitchers in baseball. That, and some stellar work by Blue Jays starter Marco Estrada, is how Toronto beat Texas 3-1.
“[Darvish] just missed up with it. And I was lucky enough to get enough of it to hit it out of the park,” Bautista said. “I feel like we were looking for pitches to hit. And I got one and I didn’t miss it. The guys in front of me did a great job by getting on base.”
Bautista’s homer was a significant blow to Darvish, who until that point had spent his day doing exactly what he does. He allowed only two base runners through his first three innings, both hit batters. The Blue Jays didn’t mustre their first hit until the fourth when Kendrys Morales laced a first-pitch fastball into the right-field corner for a one-out double.
“He was really good—he’s one of the elite in the game,” Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said of Darvish. “He was on.”
But then, the fifth. Something clearly went awry in Darvish’s matrix as he lost the zone and issued a five-pitch walk to No. 9 hitter Luke Maile, who stepped into the box 3-for-50 on the season. Kevin Pillar was next, and he hammered a 95-m.p.h. fastball to the wall in left-centre where Rangers outfielder Jared Hoying made an unbelievable catch to rob extra bases as he crashed into the video board a little less than 400 feet from home plate.
Next, a two-out single by Devon Travis. And Bautista’s three-run rocket after that. And a Morales walk. And a Smoak ground-rule double. And a long Martin at-bat that concluded with a walk on Darvish’s 26th pitch of the inning.
Eventually, Carrera struck out with the bases loaded to give Texas their third out, but that bat-around fifth ran Darvish’s pitch count up to 97, which helped force him from the game an inning later. While Darvish’s final line—six innings, three runs—is more than adequate for most mortals, it’s about as good as a team can hope for against the Rangers ace these days.
“I thought we made him work pretty hard,” Gibbons said. “And then Jose got the hanging breaking ball and did what you should do with it.”
Of course, the spirited battle Toronto hitters put up against Darvish shouldn’t distract from another fine outing by Estrada, who allowed only a run over six innings while striking out eight. He’s now third in the American League with 78 strikeouts and has pitched at least six innings in 10 of his 11 starts this season.
“He was great,” Gibbons said. “I can’t say enough good things about him. I just repeat them every time he pitches. Just a typical Estrada outing.”
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Estrada’s day began inauspiciously as Rangers leadoff hitter Shin-Soo Choo absolutely demolished his first pitch of the ballgame, turning around an 88-m.p.h. fastball up in the zone and driving it 434 feet to dead centre for a solo shot. But, as he does, Estrada immediately settled in from there, refusing to allow another hit until the fourth inning.
“I didn’t like that first-pitch homer, obviously,” Estrada said with a laugh. “But I felt really good today. I woke up this morning in a really good mood and was mentally prepared for this game.
“I liked everything. We were locating fastballs, changeups, threw some decent curveballs. Overall, my pitches were just working.”
That fourth inning presented an interesting challenge as Estrada surrendered two-out hits to Rougned Odor and Ryan Rua, which put two runners in scoring position for Joey Gallo. But at the end of a long at-bat, Estrada got Gallo to look at a 91-m.p.h. fastball on the outside black, ending the inning with his sixth strikeout of the day.
From there Estrada allowed only one more hit: a Robinson Chirinos single in the sixth inning. Although some determined Texas at-bats in that same sixth forced his pitch count up over 100 and ended his day before he would have liked, Estrada was still dominant Saturday, earning 18 swinging strikes, including 12 with his changeup which has been as good as it gets over his last two outings.
“It’s night and day from what it was,” Estrada said of his changeup, which he struggled to command earlier in the season. “I wasn’t too happy with it. Worked on it a bunch. And, finally, it feels back to what it usually is. I’m pretty confident with it. I’ll throw it whenever. It just feels better.”
Estrada gave way to Aaron Loup and eventually Ryan Tepera, who combined to work a clean seventh, with shortstop Ryan Goins starting a ridiculous double play on a Mike Napoli grounder in the hole to end the inning. Joe Smith was next, working a clean eighth around an Elvis Andrus double. Roberto Osuna finished the job—thanks in part to another absurd piece of defending by Goins on an Odor grounder—in the ninth.
The win was the fifth consecutive for the Blue Jays, and their 15th in 24 games this month, a .625 winning percentage. The club is now only three games under .500 for the first time since April 8 when they fell to 1-4 on the season.
“We’re playing good baseball—really, the whole month of May,” Gibbons said. “The month of April wasn’t a very good one. There’s no question about that. Can’t sugarcoat that. But we picked it up.
“Really, a lot of things have switched. I remember how we couldn’t get that big hit or that big break or that big out in April. Now, we’re getting those things. Balls are starting to leave the ballpark. In the month of April, it seemed like everything was landing at the warning track. Now, it really just looks like our old team.”