Nearly perfect:
Texas Rangers pitcher Yu Darvish came within an out of tossing a perfect game on Tuesday night against the Houston Astros.
HOUSTON — Yu Darvish was one out from a perfect game when Marwin Gonzalez grounded a single through the pitcher’s legs, and the Texas Rangers beat the Houston Astros 7-0 on Tuesday night.
The celebrated righthander from Japan struck out 14 and appeared to be in complete control before Gonzalez smacked the first pitch up the middle. Darvish was unable to get his glove down in time and the ball skittered into center field well beyond a desperate dive by shortstop Elvis Andrus.
Darvish put up his hands — almost like, “Oh well, it happens.” Texas’ infielders immediately came to the mound, and manager Ron Washington joined them.
Washington patted Darvish on the chest and then signaled for a reliever. A crowd that included plenty of Rangers fans cheered Darvish as he walked off after 111 pitches. He sat on the bench to watch the rest of the game, and took part in the congratulations line when it ended.
Darvish became the first pitcher to lose a perfect game with two outs in the ninth inning since Armando Galarraga on June 2, 2010. Of course, the Detroit pitcher was denied only because of an infamous missed call at first base by umpire Jim Joyce, who later admitted he blew the play.
On the second full day of the major league season, Darvish nearly picked up right where baseball left off last year, when there were a record three perfect games, thrown by Philip Humber, Matt Cain of Memphis and Felix Hernandez.
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Orioles 7, Rays 4 in St. Petersburg: Adam Jones keyed a seventh-inning rally with a go-ahead double and Chris Davis followed with a three-run homer Tuesday to help the Orioles launch their quest to return to the playoffs with a 7-4 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays.
“Today starts a long journey together, and I’m curious as everybody else to see where it takes us,” manager Buck Showalter said.
Matt Wieters homered early off AL Cy Young Award winner David Price and later drew an intentional walk from reliever Jake McGee (0-1) before Davis’ towering shot over the right-field wall broke open the game and silenced a sellout crowd of 34,078 at Tropicana Field.
The Orioles stopped a stretch of 14 consecutive losing seasons by winning 93 games and making the playoffs a year ago, when they finished second in the division behind the New York Yankees.
Indians 4, Blue Jays 1 at Toronto: NL Cy Young winner R. A. Dickey and the overhauled Toronto Blue Jays struggled in their opener and lost to Asdrubal Cabrera, Justin Masterson and the Cleveland Indians 4-1 Tuesday night.
Cabrera hit a two-run homer off Dickey, Masterson pitched six innings and the Indians ended their streak of opening day losses at four.
Cleveland won its opener for the first time since beating the Chicago White Sox in 2008. The Indians had dropped eight of their last 10 openers.
Excited by the winter acquisitions of Dickey, Jose Reyes and other AllStars, fans in Toronto were eager to see the revamped roster in action. Instead, the sellout crowd of 48,857 was disappointed.