The Texas Rangers had to win their last seven games of the season in order to have any chance of winning the American League pennant. And they won them all, with Yu Darvish pitching in two of those games.
But that only gave the Rangers a tie for a wild-card ticket to the pennant race. And in the tie-breaking game Monday night, the Rangers lost to the Tampa Bay Rays 5-1 and were eliminated.
Last year, the Rangers blew the American League West title on the final day of the season with Darvish pitching.
So Darvish will be off to Japan having racked up fantastic stats, but without the American League pennant that Texas got two years in a row before Darvish arrived.
Darvish pitched the last game of the regular season this year as last year. Texas won Sunday 3-2 over Houston. But the win was recorded by one of Darvish’s relievers.
Next week, the Iran Times will look at Darvish’s glowing stats.