Darvish beats Iwakuma for 15th win

ARLINGTON, Texas — Yu Darvish can throw fastballs by hitters. He can also freeze them with the slow-breaking curve.

Arms race: Rangers starter Yu Darvish pitches against the Mariners on Friday in Arlington, Texas. Darvish and the Rangers won 9-3. KYODO

Darvish surpassed 200 strikeouts in his rookie season while getting his 15th victory for the AL West-leading Texas Rangers in a 9-3 win against the Seattle Mariners on Friday night.

"Instead of trying to incorporate all the weapons he has, he's coming out of the bullpen recognizing what's working and he's using them," manager Ron Washington said. "One time it's his slider, one time it's his four-seamer. Today, it was his cutter . . . and the slow breaking ball."

Darvish (15-9) struck out nine in seven innings. The 196-cm right-hander often complemented a fastball in the low 150s with a breaking pitch about 48 kph slower.

"It's a tough pitch, something you're not used to," Seattle third baseman Kyle Seager said. "It definitely throws your timing off a little bit. He located really well with it. When he threw them, he threw it with a purpose."

Ian Kinsler and Josh Hamilton homered for the Rangers against Hisashi Iwakuma (6-5), like Darvish, a former Pacific League MVP and in his first year in the major leagues.

Darvish retired 12 of his last 13 batters, striking out seven in that stretch. He allowed only two hits and walked two while throwing 79 of his 110 pitches for strikes.

Darvish made his major league debut against the Mariners five months ago, a game he won after giving up four runs in the first inning. He had a 9.00 ERA in three previous starts against them.

"Just the difference between throwing against them tonight and my previous outings against them, I think it's just throwing strikes," Darvish said through his translator. "Or more precisely not feeling like I have to throw a strike."

It was Darvish's third consecutive start of at least seven innings while allowing three hits or less. The only other Texas pitcher to ever do that was Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan, now the team president. He did it in 1990.

With 205 strikeouts, Darvish is the first major league rookie over 200 since Daisuke Matsuzaka struck out 201 batters for Boston in 2007. He is the 16th rookie, sixth in the American League, to record 200 strikeouts.

It was only the eighth time Japanese starters pitched against other in the majors, but Darvish and Iwakuma faced each other six times in Japan. Darvish threw a complete game for the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters in a 2-0 win over the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles and Iwakuma, who worked 8? innings in that game, last season.

"It's not really any different between Japan and the major leagues for me," Iwakuma said through a translator. "We're friendly. In Japan, we go to dinner sometimes and I keep in touch with him."

After Carlos Peguero led off the fifth with a strikeout, Darvish's fourth of the game and 200th of the season, the Japanese star quickly added to that total. Trayvon Robinson took a called third strike and Munenori Kawasaki struck out swinging, missing a 151 kph pitch right after taking a 99 kph curve over the plate.

"The hitters, I felt like they were starting to time all my other pitches, or their timing was starting to come together," Darvish said. "I talked it over with (catcher Geovany) Soto during the game to start using that slower curve more."

Reliever Koji Uehara struck out two in a scoreless eighth for Texas.

Kawasaki got the start at shortstop and finished 0-for-2.

Rays 6, Yankees 4

In New York, David Price earned his league-leading 18th win with another superb performance against the Yankees.

Good effort: Mariners starter Hisashi Iwakuma pitches against the Rangers on Friday. AP

New York's Ichiro Suzuki was 0-for-1 in an appearance as a pinch hitter.

Athletics 3, Orioles 2

In Oakland, Yoenis Cespedes hit a two-run homer while playing with a sore right wrist, and the AL wild card-leading Athletics beat Baltimore to prevent the Orioles from moving into sole possession of first place in the AL East.

White Sox 6, Twins 0

In Minneapolis, Chris Sale threw six scoreless innings for his 17th victory after being rained out the night before, helping Chicago keep its one-game lead over Detroit in the AL Central.

Tigers 4, Indians 0

In Cleveland, Justin Verlander pitched seven shutout innings and made sure Detroit stayed in step with first-place Chicago in the AL Central.

Red Sox 8, Blue Jays 5

In Toronto, Mauro Gomez hit a tiebreaking triple in the ninth inning.

Angels 9, Royals 7

In Kansas City, pinch hitter Kendrys Morales had a two-run homer during an eighth-inning rally that sent Los Angeles past the Royals.Rangers hurler Ks nine to reach 205 for the year

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