Determined Darvish earns his win

ARLINGTON, Texas — Yu Darvish didn’t get pulled early this time, and he didn’t have to try to explain a puzzling loss.

The Japanese right-hander pitched eight innings in his longest outing since elbow surgery two years ago, and the Rangers scored the tying and go-ahead runs without a hit to complete a four-game sweep of the Royals with a 5-2 victory Sunday.

Darvish retired 15 of 16 batters after giving up three consecutive hits in the third. Two of those were back-to-back solo home runs by Mike Moustakas and Jorge Bonifacio, whose first bigleague homer came two innings after he singled for his first career hit.

Darvish was coming off a 4-2 loss to the A’s during which he imploded in the sixth and was yanked without a chance to work out of trouble with the score tied. He responded with his highest pitch count (113) since his Tommy John reconstructive surgery during spring training in 2015.

“He told me since I took him out at 82 that I owed him a lot of pitches,” pitching coach Doug Brocail said. “I said, ‘OK, I’ll add 20-25,’ and you could see him doing the math. That’s only 102. He was bound and determined to throw eight and 100-plus, and he got us there.”

Darvish (2-2) struck out eight with one walk as the Rangers finished their second four-game sweep of the Royals in as many seasons.

The Rangers have won 10 straight against the Royals, who have lost five of six since a four-game winning streak.

Matt Bush pitched a perfect ninth for his first save this season and the second of his career.

The Royals have a majors-low 46 runs after scoring just five in 40 innings in the series.