Yu Darvish is making it look easy in Houston.
The 26-year-old right-hander has retired the first 21 batters he’s faced, and will carry a perfect game into the eighth inning at Minute Maid Park. He has his entire arsenal working against a weak Astros lineup -- seriously, look at this slider -- and boasts a career-high 12 strikeouts through seven frames.
Darvish is already up to 93 pitches and it’s his first outing of the 2013 regular season, so he might not be allowed to finish this thing off. But there isn’t a single pitcher stirring yet in the Texas bullpen.
We’ll provide regular updates as the night rolls on.
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UPDATE, 10:39 p.m. ET: Darvish struck out Chris Carter swinging, Rick Ankiel looking and got Justin Maxwell to ground out in the eighth innings. He’s up to 14 strikeouts and 107 total pitches. Still perfect.
Darvish will face the bottom of the Astros’ order in the ninth inning. Texas leads Houston 7-0.
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UPDATE, 10:58 p.m. ET: Darvish induced two groundouts in the ninth inning but then allowed a single up the middle to Astros shortstop Marwin Gonzalez. Darvish was pulled right after -- at 111 pitches.
