Yu Darvish loses a "no-no" with 1 out remaining to Big Papi, Rangers drop Red Sox 8 - 0

So close again: Rangers' Darvish loses no-hit bid with out to go

Anthony Andro

+FOX Sports Southwest


ARLINGTON, Texas – Boston's David Ortiz took the official scorer off the hook Friday night in what would have been one of the most debated no-hitters in big league history.

His ninth inning single with two outs off Texas ace Yu Darvish ended Darvish's bid for a no-hitter and made a controversial seventh-inning error by Texas outfielder Alex Rios a non-factor in Darvish's no-hit bid. It didn't take away from a brilliant performance by Darvish in an 8-0 blanking of the Boston Red Sox.
The hit by Ortiz to right field in the teeth of the Texas shift marked the second-consecutive year Darvish has lost a no-hitter with two outs in the ninth inning.

It was fitting that it was Ortiz who ended the no-no bid as he was part of the controversy in the seventh inning. It was his two-out blooper to right that fell in between Rios and second baseman Rougned Odor, without either of the players touching the ball.

It took official scorer Steve Weller a couple of minutes to make the error call. While that was happening Darvish walked Mike Napoli before getting Grady Sizemore to fly out to right to keep the no-hit bid intact.

Darvish, who struck out 12 before being lifted after allowing the Ortiz single, took some of the blame for the error because he fell behind 3-1 to Ortiz. He had no problem with the final result.

"This is my second time I experienced this but if I keep pitching like this someday I'll get it," Darvish said. "I'll keep doing what I'm doing and I'll probably have the world record of almost a no-hitter. I don't think it was the best game that I threw but it was against Boston and I think I pitched well against them."

Darvish was perfect through six innings and that carried over to start the seventh as he got a fly ball from Dustin Pedroia and a grounder from Shane Victorino.

That's when Ortiz looked like a lazy fly ball that no one caught. Rios took full responsibility for the play.

"We had the shift on and I thought that he (Odor) was a little closer to the ball than I was,
said Rios. "At the end, it's my responsibility to call him off and it's a shame that I couldn't help him achieve a great pitching performance tonight. I should have taken control of that ball. It can be called an error, yeah. We were camped under the ball, so it can be called an error."

Odor said he couldn't hear Rios because of the crowd noise at Globe Life Park.

Texas manager Ron Washington thought the play should have been made too.

"My take on it is it should have been caught," said Washington, who declined to say who he thought should have caught the ball.

Weller cited Rule 10:12a1 in the rule book for his decision on the error call. He believed Rios called off Odor on the play. He checked with the Elias Sports Bureau who agreed with his decision.

"Again, this is a judgment call," Weller told a pool reporter. "In my judgment, when the ball goes up in the air, I felt like the second baseman or the right fielder under normal effort could've clearly caught the ball. I don't think there's a lot of argument about that. Under the rule, 10.12a1, it clearly states that a fly ball that lands — that's allowed to hit the ground, that in the judgment of the official scorer under normal effort could be caught — you're to award an error on the play."

Ortiz said he had no problem with the play being ruled an error but after he broke up the no-hitter with a clean hit, he believes the call in the seventh should be changed too. 

"Ok, I know I hit a ball that was supposed to be caught," Ortiz said. "You know guy throwing a no-hitter, we all understand, but it comes down to the rules of the game… that's a hit. That's the rule that we all know and that's rule that the game have for more than 100 years. "

Darvish worked around an eighth-inning leadoff walk to keep the no-hitter going, finishing the inning with his 12th and final strikeout.

He was replaced by Alex Ogando after the single and Ogando completed the major-league high eighth shutout for the +Texas Rangers. That's not up for debate regardless of how the seventh inning played out.

Darvish was philosophical about the night because he felt like he had given up a hit to Ortiz in the seventh.

"It was a 3-1 count and I had to throw a fastball in that situation," Darvish said. "As soon as he hit it I thought it was going to be a hit. Obviously I was a little bit disappointed but I was already ready to give up a hit so it didn't matter."

SO CLOSE! AGAIN! Yu Darvish loses a no-no with one out to go. The @Rangers defeat the #RedSox 8-0. http://t.co/vt0GSG7x4Z
— FOX Sports (@FOXSports) May 10, 2014

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