Darvish, Rangers Top Pirates 5-2
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ARLINGTON (AP) — Yu Darvish struck out seven in five strong innings in his first start in the majors in almost 22 months, and the Texas Rangers beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 5-2 on Saturday night.
The Japanese right-hander allowed three singles with a walk in his return from last year's Tommy John surgery, ending Pittsburgh's five-game winning streak.
Adrian Beltre had a two-run homer in the first inning off Juan Nicasio (3-3) to become the fourth third baseman with at least 1,500 RBIs, finishing with 1,501.
Mitch Moreland snapped a 1-for-27 skid with a solo home run in the fourth.
Four Texas relievers allowed four hits and a run with four strikeouts in four innings.
The "Yuuu" calls from a sellout crowd started early for Darvish, who last pitched in the big leagues on Aug. 9, 2014. He missed the rest of that season with right elbow inflammation, and ended up needing ligament reconstruction surgery after his only spring training appearance last year.
Darvish (1-0) had a 0.90 ERA in five rehab starts this month, culminating with an 87-pitch outing. He threw 81 against the Pirates, hitting 98 mph with his fastball in the first inning and displaying his usual array of breaking pitches, some as slow as 70 mph.
John Jaso had a leadoff single on Darvish's second pitch before Andrew McCutchen struck out. The Pirates didn't get another hit until Francisco Cervelli's sinking liner in front of rookie right fielder Nomar Mazara in the fifth.
No. 9 hitter Cole Figueroa ended Darvish's shutout bid by pulling a hanging slider into right-center field for a single that scored Cervelli from second. Darvish then struck out Jaso for the second time to finish his outing.
Beltre's homer just cleared the wall in center field after Prince Fielder's RBI groundout to score leadoff hitter Jurickson Profar, who had two hits filling in for suspended second baseman Rougned Odor. It was the second game of Odor's seven-game ban.
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