In Surprise, Arizona, the Rangers received all they could ask for from their respective starters. Yu Darvish had full command of his fastball that sat between 93-95 mph as he threw 23 of 29 pitches for strikes. Darvish struck out four batters in his two innings of work. Something that Greg Maddux hinted at this offseason is for the Japanese pitcher to start throwing more fastballs and getting ahead in the count early. Well, he did just that. All eight batters that he faced saw a first pitch fastball. “I think it worked out very well,” Darvish said.
Something that Darvish wasn’t used to last year was having an early lead, or a lead at all. “Hopefully we can turn that around,” said Prince Fielder who absolutely crushed a bullet over the right field fence in his second at bat. The Rangers lead 4-0 before Darvish was done for the day and finished with an 11-7 victory. “I just got lucky…he threw the ball where my bat was going,” Fielder said about his homer that was no shy of at least 350 feet.
Michael Choice saw action against two lefty’s at the plate and was 2-2. Seeing that Choice is going to be facing plenty of southpaws this year, his performance was a good sign. Adrian Beltre knocked a double and walked once while scoring on both trips on the bases. Mitch Moreland had an RBI single hitting as the DH today. Newly acquired catcher J.P. Arencibia also legged out a double and had one RBI. Tommy Hanson threw 1.1 innings giving up 1 hit, 1 walk, 1 strikeout and an unearned run. Hanson’s fastball stayed around 89-90 mph.
The Texas Rangers and The Kansas City Royals are back in action tomorrow at 2:05 p.m. CT.
