The good, the bad and the ugly

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Debut

In his first half inning as a Texas Ranger in Major League Baseball, Yu Darvish allowed four hits, three walks and a wild pitch to dig himself into a 4-0 before recording a second out.

He then struck out Brendan Ryan and got Chone Figgins (the 10th hitter) to ground out. He sat at around 40 pitches and everyone was convinced this would be a short outing, a learning experience.

I honestly felt that the first inning wasn't so bad. A) it could've been 100 times worse (he stranded the bases running and there was only one multi-run play) and B) four runs is nothing against the Mariners for the Texas Rangers.

Not only did the Rangers rally for an 11-5 win, but Ron Washington and Mike Maddux stuck with Darvish for the next five innings and he rewarded everyone, including the 42,000 in attendance.

His final line:

5.2 IP - 8 hits - 5 ER - 4 BBs - 5 Ks - 111 pitches.

Once he started to settle down and locate the fastball in the zone, he hit his stride. He sat down 10 straight at one point. After that first inning -- as you can tell -- he went: 4.2 IP - 4 hits - 1 ER - 1 BB - 3 Ks. Many of the outs were so weak that it's not funny. Dustin Ackley looked like he crapped his pants on that first strike out on a nasty curve. Many of the groundouts were incredibly weak. Of course, many of the hits were hit hard.

Lesser pitchers melt under the circumstances. Darvish did not. Washington and Maddux saw the resolve (somehow) and left him out there to figure things out. Brilliant move on their part and kudos to Mike Napoli for helping right the ship. And to the 42,000 who gave the standing ovation upon his exit. Darvish is now 1-0.

Otherwise, it was made clear that Darvish wasn't the overwhelmed starting pitcher out on the mound last night. Seattle's hurlers were under assault from the get-go and it eventually was blown open by the "struggling" Nelson Cruz, who jacked a three-run job in the third inning to tie things at 5-5 and then it was all Rangers. Cruz wound up with three hits and four RBI.

The Rangers managed five walks, four home runs, 12 hits and 11 runs. The jacks were from Cruz, Hamilton, Ian Kinsler and Mitch Moreland and all were hit very hard, three being line drives.

A neat three innings from Alexi Ogando, Mike Adams and Scooter Feldman and that wrapped things up. It was not ideal nor was it a regular night at the Ballpark. It was a win for the division lead early in this season. First place will never get old.

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