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Whirling Darvish: Yu holds Yankees scoreless

Apr 25, 2012 - 5:18 AM Arlington, TX (Sports Network) - Yu Darvish struck out 10 through 8 1/3 scoreless innings to lead the Texas Rangers past the New York Yankees, 2-0, in the second test of a three-game series at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.

Darvish (3-0) scattered seven hits and two walks while Ian Kinsler smacked a solo home run for the Rangers, who improved to 14-4 on the season.

"He just keeps getting better each time he takes the ball. Tonight, he used everything he had against that team and he had to with the type of hitters they were," Rangers manager Ron Washington said about Darvish.

Hiroki Kuroda (1-3) suffered the loss despite allowing two runs on five hits and two walks through 6 2/3 innings.

Derek Jeter and Robinson Cano had two hits apiece for New York, which had its six-game road winning streak snapped.

Texas struck first when Kinsler led off the bottom of the first inning with a home run over the left-center field wall.

The Yankees loaded the bases with no outs in the third with an Eric Chavez base hit, a Russell Martin walk and a Jeter bunt single, but Curtis Granderson was caught looking before Alex Rodriguez grounded into an inning-ending double play to keep it a 1-0 game.

The Rangers then added to their lead in the home third when Elvis Andrus worked a two-out walk, stole second and came home on Josh Hamilton's base hit to right.

New York threatened again in the fourth when Cano led off the frame with a double, but Darvish stranded him there by fanning Mark Teixeira and Nick Swisher before inducing a bouncer to second by Raul Ibanez.

After Granderson wasted Jeter's two-out double in the fifth inning by grounding out to first, the Yankees would not move another runner past first base for the remainder of the game.

Darvish was replaced by Joe Nathan in the ninth when Swisher slapped a one-out single to left field and it took Nathan just one pitch to record his fifth save of the year as Ibanez bounced a ball to second for a game-ending 4-6-3 double play.

"We battled but we just weren't able to string something together," said Martin.

Game Notes

The game was the seventh all-time meeting between two Japanese starting pitchers...New York's six-game win streak on the road was its longest since also winning six straight road tests from June 27-July 9, 2010...Jeter increased his hit streak to 14 games...Granderson has now reached base safely in each of his last 16 games.