OAKLAND, Calif. _ Yu Darvish said that he is confident he will be effective in the postseason after pitching seven scoreless innings for the Texas Rangers in a 5-0 victory over the Oakland Athletics.
The A's, who have been Darvish's nemesis since he arrived from Japan, scored seven runs in five innings last weekend against Darvish but mustered only two hits and a walk at Oakland Coliseum.
Darvish struck out nine, including Yonder Alonso looking at a slider on his 99th and final pitch.
"I was able to throw a lot of strikes today, and overall it was a good outing," Darvish said. "I think I'm well prepared. I didn't pitch well against Oakland. I don't have a good history here. But to pitch well here against these guys gives me more confidence heading into the playoffs."
The A's threatened once against Darvish in the fifth after a one-out single and a walk, but he eased out of trouble by inducing two flyouts. He had retired 11 straight entering the inning and would finish by retiring his final eight batters.
Manager Jeff Banister said that Darvish didn't get lost in his mechanics and was able to consistently find the strike zone. He threw first-pitch strikes to 18 of 24 batters.
"He created some tremendous angle, and the fastball was electric today," Banister said. "He had no real hard contact today. He seemed to be in control of all of his pitches."
Shortstop Elvis Andrus provided most of the offense in the most unlikely of ways, with the first multi-homer game of his career. Andrus went deep to center field in the second inning on a ball he didn't think would get over the fence, but he knew the ball he drove down the left-field line in the sixth would leave.
The question was if it would stay fair.
"I was praying," Andrus said. "I was blowing to keep it fair."
