Yu Darvish hasn’t been worth $107 million so far this year, but his experience in the majors so far may come in handy Tuesday night as the Texas Rangers face the New York Yankees. It will be a showdown between two of the highest-scoring offenses in baseball.
Darvish has been touched up this year, surrendering 17 hits over 11 1/3 innings. But what he’s done well has been limiting the damage. Despite walking 13 hitters so far this year, Darvish has cut down on his runs allowed and seems to be steadily improving in the box score. He only allowed one run in his previous start against the Detroit Tigers last week. In that start, he went a season-high 6 1/3 innings in a 10-3 win.
That kind of experience with runners on base will probably come to use tonight. New York is averaging 8.8 runs per game so far and leads the majors with 28 homers. After sweeping the Boston Red Sox in a two-game series over the weekend, the Yankees are on a four-game winning streak with a .432 team average with runners in scoring position.
After being swept in the season-opening series against the Tampa Bay Rays, New York has won 10 of 13.
Alex Rodriguez hit a three-run homer in the series opener last night, and Derek Jeter extended his hit streak to 13 games with four hits against Texas. Jeter is hitting .471 in his last seven games at Rangers Ballpark.
Bovada’s MLB Player Props is expecting Jeter to get at least one hit on Tuesday, with -260 odds.
“He’s playing like he’s 25,” manager Joe Girardi told the Associated Press. “He’s off to a great start. He feels good physically and that’s the most important thing.”
New York has won five-straight over Texas.
Hiroki Kuroda will try to make it six against Darvish. It will be just the seventh time in major league history two Japanese-born pitchers will square off. Kuroda gave up six runs and 10 hits in his most recent start.
The Rangers make a claim for the American League’s best offense, leading the majors with 98 runs, a .298 batting average and 27 homers.
Josh Hamilton has eight of them, which leads all of baseball. He’s batting .462 over his last nine games with six home runs and 15 RBI.
The Rangers are favored by 1 1/2 runs, according to Bovada.