Thursday, May 17, 2012

Can I Borrow "Yu"re Interpreter

Yu Darvish is settling nicely into his role as the "unofficial" ace of the Ranger's staff.  I know the A's are no powerhouse offensively, but last night he shut them down to the tune of 1 earned run over 7 2/3 innings.  His effort did two things.  It allowed the Ranger's bullpen to rest and it stopped the madness of a two-game losing streak at the hands of the Royals.

Darvish has done a really amazing job since he gave up 5 earned runs in his first start.  His season stats look like this: 8 starts, 6-1 record and a 2.60 ERA.  He's pitched 52 innings, allowing 43 hits, 17 runs and 4 homers.  He has 58 strikeouts and 26 walks.  His average against is .222.

Other than the walks, everything looks pretty good.  In his 8 starts, he has allowed 1 or fewer earned runs 5 times.  I was really impressed with him during the first game of the Rangers-Angels series.  He pitched the first inning and then sat during a nearly 2 hour rain delay.  C.J. Wilson didn't come back to pitch after the delay, but Darvish did and he was rewarded with a win.

Since Darvish won't be pitching for a few days, I need to borrow his interpreter to decipher this card I got in my huge package of randomness awesomeness from Derek over at Tomahawk Chopping.




The scan of this 2011 Bowman Chrome Ichiro reprint does not do the card justice.  It looks so much better in person.




Back in the old days, I didn't pay much attention to card backs.  Now that I'm an enlightened collector, I check out the backs of cards and I didn't expect to see this.  Did Topps make an English back AND a Japanese back or were they all printed this way?

It's a nice card and will probably end up in someone else's hands at some point.


1 comment:

  1. It's never good to see the A's lose, but I'd be lying if I didn't find a little enjoyment out of watching Yu kick butt this season. I hope he keeps things rolling and wins the Cy Young Award.

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