Texas Rangers stud pitcher Yu Darvish was at it again on Monday, striking out 15 Houston Astros and taking a no-hitter into the eighth inning of Texas’ 2-1 win at Minute Maid Park.
Darvish, who leads all MLB pitchers in strikeouts, went eight innings allowing one walk, one hit, and one run while striking out a career-high 15 for the win. The lone hit was a solo home run by Carlos Corporan with one out in the eighth. In the video above, you can see all 15 of Darvish’s strikeouts. Most of them came on one of his amazing breaking balls, while it looks like two came on fastballs.
Darvish was actually perfect through five until walking Jonathan Villar with two outs in the sixth. The walk came after a controversial 2-2 call that led to catcher A.J. Pierzynski’s ejection.
Darvish struck out Robbie Grossman and Brandon Barnes all three times he faced them.
Darvish has four 14-strikeout games this season, in addition to Monday’s 15-strikeout game. Two of the 14-strikeout games have come against the Arizona Diamondbacks, while another came against Houston, against whom he nearly threw a perfect game in his first start of the year. The 15 strikeouts matches Darvish’s career-best mark in professional baseball (he had a 15-K game in Japan).
