Yu Darvish strikes out Jason Hayward for his fifth Cub hitter in a row.

Yu Darvish returned yesterday.

It was vintage Darvish. When Darvish is at his best, he is so dominating, two teams cannot score. His opponent and his own.

And that happened yet again. The pitcher notorious for losing 1-0 games left Saturday’s game with nine strikeouts in 4.1 innings, three hits, and just two runs.

But the Rangers bothered to scrape together just one run of their own.

And Darvish took yet another loss where his team didn’t support him.

In fact, in four seasons, Davish has now lost twenty-six major league games. Fourteen of those losses, more than half, came when he gave up three runs or fewer.

Of those fourteen loses Yu has lost four 3-2 games, four 3-1 games (including yesterday), one 2-1 game, one 2-0 game, and four 1-0 games.

It’s good to have Darvish back. Even if he barely made it past four innings. Even if they can’t seem to win with him pitching. At least we have a chance. Which is more than we could say for the carousel of incompetence we have seen coming from the farm system.

*****
TODAY’S GAME:

Cole Hamels (9-2, 3.21) vs. John Lackey (7-5 , 3.70)
Game time: 1:20 pm

How the Rangers hit against Lackey.
How the Cubs hit against Hamels.