SEATTLE--When the game was over, Yu Darvish felt the need to apologize.
The latest challenge in his season-long education of pitching in Major League Baseball did not go well.
“I wasn't able to go deep in the game as a starter should,'' Darvish said through a translator.
Ichiro Suzuki and the Seattle Mariners chased Darvish after just four innings in his shortest start of the season, and the Mariners rolled to their fourth straight win in a 6-1 victory over the Texas Rangers on May 21.
Seattle became the first team Darvish (6-2) had to face a second time, and for the second time he struggled to solve the Mariners. The Japanese rookie labored through 96 pitches and a season-high six walks, failing in his bid to become the first seven-game winner in the majors.
Only Seattle's inability to take advantage of a bases-loaded situation in the fourth kept Darvish's line from being worse. He was inconsistent and, combined with a Seattle lineup that knew his penchant for being a bit wild, it added up to the worst outing of an otherwise brilliant two months so far.
“The early part of the game I was OK with my command,'' Darvish said. “But somewhere in the middle when I really needed to throw a strike, I struggled to get a strike.''
The game was a chance to see how Darvish would handle facing a team the second time around. While he was off to a solid start--subtract the five runs in the first two innings against the Mariners in his debut and his ERA since then is 1.94--all of his starts were against teams seeing the Japanese star for the first time.
And Seattle had plenty of success--for two innings--when it saw Darvish for the first time back in April. The Mariners rattled Darvish for eight hits and five earned runs that day, but the Rangers gave Darvish enough offense to make that first start a victory.
Darvish's troubles started almost immediately. He walked Michael Saunders with one out in the first and Suzuki immediately ripped a shot over first base and down the right-field line. But instead of bouncing off the short wall in foul territory and into the outfield, the ball stayed at the base of the wall. Saunders scored from first and Suzuki strolled into third without a throw.
In the third, with two runners on and one out, Suzuki sent a single into shallow center that scored Dustin Ackley from second. Saunders was aggressive and tried to go first to third on the hit, and instead jogged home when Josh Hamilton's throw from center soared over third baseman Adrian Beltre and into the Rangers' dugout on the fly. Rookie Jesus Montero followed with a sacrifice fly to deep center that scored Suzuki.
Darvish continued to struggle in the fourth, walking the bases loaded to start the inning. Ackley's RBI single scored John Jaso, but Darvish got infield groundouts by Saunders and Suzuki and a strikeout of Kyle Seager to end the inning and limit the damage. Montero added an RBI double in the seventh off reliever Yoshinori Tateyama, who was called up on Monday after Neftali Feliz was placed on the 15-day disabled list.
Darvish had pitched into at least the sixth inning of all eight of his previous starts.
“I told him he doesn't have to apologize to me,'' manager Ron Washington said. “That's just part of baseball.''
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