After besting the red-hot Rangers 7-4 behind solid pitching from , the Yankees looked to continue their success in Arlington. Game 2 of the series featured a pitching matchup that guaranteed interest across multiple continents, as took on his Japanese countryman, hyped import . Although the two never faced each other in Japan, it would be an opportunity for perhaps the most successful Japanese-born pitcher in MLB history to match up with the one looking to strip him of that mantle.
Darvish gained the advantage in the early going, sending down the Yankees in the top of the 1st while allowing only a walk to . In the early going, he was showing a variety of offerings, including a 92-94 MPH fastball and several sharp breaking pitches to keep the Yankees off balance. Kuroda, meanwhile, surrendered a leadoff home run to to put the Bombers in the hole, before retiring the next 3 hitters to keep the deficit at 1.
Both pitchers cruised through the second inning without much difficulty, and the Yankees began to go to work on Darvish in the top of the 3rd. singled to right to lead off the inning, and walked. This brought up , who, to the collective consternation of managers on Twitter, laid down a bunt. Despite this egregious breach of ettiquette, the bunt ended up working out for Jeter and the Yankees, as it was perfectly placed between Darvish and 1st-baseman . Both players froze, allowing Jeter to beat out an infield single, and loading the bases with nobody out.
The Yankees looked poised to scratch across a few runs, but unfortunately for them, Darvish had other ideas. Curtis Granderson put together a tough at-bat against Darvish, but ended up striking out looking on a breaking pitch on the outside corner. The pitch definitely looked outside, but Darvish got the call and Granderson was forced to walk back to the dugout with nothing. There was an inconsistent strike zone all night, but unfortunately it hurt the Yankees at the most inconvenient time. The next batter, , attacked Darvish early in the count, grounding a ball to Beltre at 3rd. Beltre stepped in 3rd and then fired to 1st, doubling up Rodriguez and ending the Yankee threat.
The Rangers got on the board against Kuroda in the bottom of the 3rd via a 2-out rally. After retiring Moreland and Kinsler, Kuroda rather unfortunately walked the speedy , sending the dangerous to the plate. Andrus promptly stole second base, and then Hamilton punished Kuroda’s 2-out walk by stroking a single to right, scoring Andrus and putting the Rangers ahead 2-0.
The Yankees looked to answer back in the 4th when stroked a leadoff double to right-center. Darvish was not fazed by the runner in scoring position, striking out and on some nasty pitches before inducing to ground weakly to 2nd. In the bottom of the inning, Kuroda worked around a 1-out single by Nelson Cruz by striking out and to end the inning, and keep the game at 2-0.
The Yankees threatened again in the top of the 5th on a 2-out double by Jeter (who put together another multi-hit game, incredible). However, Granderson was unable to bring Jeter in, grounding out to Moreland to preserve the shutout.
Both pitchers cruised through the 6th, and Darvish shut the Yankees down in the top of the 7th. After giving up a 2-out single to Napoli, Kuroda gave way to , who ended the inning by inducing a groundout by Moreland. The Yankees continued to be befuddled by Darvish in the 8th, as the young righty did not seem to show any ill effects of his climbing pitch count. and kept the game right where it was in the 8th, giving the Yankees one more crack at a comeback in the 9th.
Darvish, looking to complete the shutout, faced Mark Teixeira to lead off the 9th. Teixeira aggressively went after the 1st pitch, skying it to shallow center, and passing the baton to Nick Swisher, who had looked absolutely befuddled against Darvish all day. Swisher looked terrible on the 1st pitch of the AB, but rebounded to stroke a single to left. Ron Washington strode to the mound, and Darvish, with 119 pitches on the evening, was finished. With the tying run at bat in the form of Raul Ibanez and the dominant Darvish out of the game, a glimmer of hope emerged for the Yankees. They looked to take advantage against longtime nemesis . Alas, Ibanez grounded out weakly to Kinsler on the 1st pitch from Nathan, leading to a 4-6-3 double play and a Ranger victory.
Despite being out-pitched by his more famous countryman, Kuroda capably stepped up to the challenge against a very strong Rangers lineup. Overall he went 6 2/3 innings, giving up 5 hits and 2 walks, with 5 strikeouts. He kept the Yankees in the game by locating his fastball well and making good use of his offspeed offerings to keep the Texas hitters off balance. The leadoff homer by Kinsler and the 2-out walk to Andrus were Kuroda’s only real mistakes, and he rebounded nicely from his last poor outing. Hopefully he can keep this level of performance going forward, as the Yankees will need to rely on him for consistent, quality innings with Garcia and Hughes struggling.
Darvish looked as good as advertised, striking out 10 Yankees over 8 1/3 innings, while giving up 7 hits and 2 walks. The Yankees had a few chances to get to Darvish, particularly in the top of the 3rd, but he elevated his game with runners on to work out of a few tricky situations. The Yankees had a difficult time figuring out Darvish’s pitch sequencing, in large part because of the variety of pitches that Darvish had at his disposal. He got most of his strikeouts with breaking balls away that Yankee hitters simply flailed helplessly at. The erratic strike zone helped Darvish at times, but ultimately, he was in complete control against the Yankee lineup. This was the best outing of Darvish’s young MLB career, and if there is more of this to come in the future, he could be a bona fide ace.
Jeter and Cano were the offensive stars for the Yankees, as each managed two hits (one of which was a double) against Darvish. Jeter pushed his batting average up to .416 with his day, as he continued to build off of his impressive start. While he has crushed lefties in the early going, Jeter showed tonight that he was capable of hanging tough against a tough righty he had never seen before, and even of placing down a bunt for a base hit. Granderson, A-Rod and Ibanez were probably the goats of the evening, as Granderson struck out with bases loaded in the 3rd, and both Rodriguez and Ibanez hit into rally-killing double-plays. It was a tough game for the Yankee offense, but a dominant pitcher will do that to you, and tonight, Darvish was that good.
The Yankees look to rebound tomorrow against , sending the mercurial to the mound. The Yankees will try to get their offense back on track against Feldman, while Hughes will try to improve on his rough start to the season.
The big story in the background tonight is the health of . He underwent a dye contrast MRI today, and apparently will go to seek a second opinion before the results are announced. The idea of getting a second opinion was broached prior to the MRI, so this doesn’t necessarily mean that they found anything wrong today. However, there is still a great deal of uncertainty about Pineda’s condition, and hopefully some resolution will be forthcoming.
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I wonder if there are any books written on the “art of hitting”? I know there is “guess” hitting. I know there is shortening a swing to try to increase chance of contact. I know there is waiting for an exact pitch in an exact location, and jumping on it. I know there is “working the count”. I know that there is recognition of the pitch out of the pitchers hand and adjusting in the 1/3 of a second before the ball gets to the zone. I know each style increases certain outcomes. For example, guessing increases the chances of a home run. You guess right, bam. You guess wrong you look foolish. Shortening swings means more contact, more singles, less homers. Funny that Mickey Mantle once commented on Pete Rose breaking the all time singles record….”what size dress does Pete wear”…meaning, men try to hit home runs. But on the other hand, my Yankees had bases loaded no outs and a single would have scored 2…and later with Cano on 2nd a single would have scored a 3rd run in a game we lost 2-0. Men hit homers and singles hitters wear dresses. I wonder if there are books written on hitting and singles and dresses are discussed?
There are definitely several books on that topic.
Ted Williams famously wrote a book called “The Science of Hitting”
Tony Gwynn wrote “The Art of Hitting”
I cannot contribute any authoritative sources, but I support your quest in spirit. The Yankees would benefit from choosing and developing good situational hitters. A mix of talent toward bat handling and adjustable swings, ala Robbie and Jeter would better enable offense against tough pitchers. Some power guessers and some bat handlers, that would be good.
Pete Rose didn’t bat 1.000, or anything close to it, with runners in scoring position. No matter how good a hitter is or what approach he takes a good pitcher on his game will beat him most of the time. That’s what happened last night.