Yu Darvish dominates Twins, Carlos Gomez leaves game after collision

Yu Darvish gets back on track against the Twins and Carlos Gomez leaves a game after running into Ryan Braun.

Jun 29, 2014, 12:00 PM UTC

Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

Yu Darvish threw eight shutout innings, striking out 10 and walking only one Twins player as Texas beat Minnesota 5-0 Saturday. Darvish's scoreless start comes after two rough outings in a row that each saw him give up four earned runs.

Even with those shaky starts, Darvish still remains in the top five in the AL in ERA and tops in K/9 as part of perhaps his best season so far as a professional. And the Rangers have needed Darvish at his best, as they've struggled mightily to keep pace with the division-leading A's, who currently stand 13 games ahead of them.

Ron Washington wasn’t surprised that his ace bounced back, telling the AP, “I thought he was Yu Darvish again. I don’t care how good you are. There will be bumps in the road. There will be times when things don’t go right. And that even can happen for Yu Darvish. It was good for him to go out there today and find his pitches that worked.”

That “pitch that worked” was his cutter, which former AL MVP Joe Mauer told reporters “is probably his best pitch, he can definitely make the ball move in a lot of different directions.”

With this performance, the Rangers are hoping that Yu Darvish's cutter can lead the team in a new direction: up the standings.

Seriously, this Darvish kid might be good

10 K's by Darvish & his 5th double digit strikeout game of the season. The 25th time he's accomplished that feat in his career. #Whiff
— Texas Rangers (@Rangers) June 28, 2014

Braun can’t stop hurting teammates

For the second time this season, Ryan Braun managed to take one of his teammates out of a game. Though, unlike last time, he used his body instead of an errant bat swing as he collided with fellow outfielder Carlos Gomez during the seventh inning. This was the result: