Texas Rangers pitcher Yu Darvish lost his fourth start in a row as Oakland's Bartolo Colon outdueled the Japanese ace in a 1-0 victory by the A's on Saturday.
Oakland won its fourth Major League Baseball game in a row and seventh in eight games to stretch its margin atop the Rangers in the American League West division to 5 1/2 games.
Colon scattered seven hits and struck out eight while walking only one Ranger batter while 35-year-old Australian relief ace Grant Balfour struck out pinch-hitter David Murphy for the final out to collect his 38th save of the season.
Oakland's Brandon Moss hit a run-scoring double in the first inning off Darvish to produce the victory margin.
Darvish, who fell to 12-9 this season, allowed only four hits and walked just one batter while striking out 10 over seven innings, boosting his major-league-best strikeout total for the season to 256.
Darvish has lost in all four games he has pitched against Oakland this season.
The Rangers lost for the fifth time in a row and the eighth time in nine games and saw their lead over Tampa Bay for a wild-card playoff spot trimmed to a half-game with barely two weeks remaining in the six-month season.
© (C) 2013 AFP
7 Comments
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kickboard
Well, when your team doesn't score any runs you're not gonna win many games. Another tough loss for Darvish. He held the team to one run over 7 innings in the last game too.
edojin
Darvish has now lost four 1-0 games this season. Too bad the Rangers can't hit when he pitches, 'cause if they did he would probably have close to 20 wins by now.
Morever, the Rangers might not even make the wild-card playoff game if they keep playing the way they area. Like last season, they started the season well but petered out in the long run.
smithinjapan
Sounds like he didn't do too badly. It's like when Ichiro was with the Mariners -- he was absolutely amazing but the team couldn't hold it together. It's a TEAM, not a person, so don't blame it on the person.
Pukey2
That's not the impression I get watching the Japanese news when a Japanese player is on the winning team. In that case, it's the individual (read, Japanese player) who has won.
some14some
what makes the difference is : winning pitcher Bartolo Colon (16-6) ERA 2.73 losing pitcher Yu Darvish (12-9) ERA 2.79 game over !
therougou
That's not a very big difference in ERA. But considering the team can't hit, they should match Darvish up against a weaker pitcher so at least they can win a game...
mdepaiva
Darvish is in the same boat that Felix Hernandez of the Seattle Mariners is in. Low run production whenever he pitches.