While Yu Darvish was bidding to make history, there was an unexpected change in who he was throwing to.
Texas Rangers catcher A.J. Pierzynski was ejected during the sixth inning of Darvish's no-hit bid after arguing a couple of close calls by home plate umpire Ron Kulpa. Pierzynski's main gripe came on a close call by Kulpa on a 2-2 pitch in an at-bat that eventually resulted in a perfect game-ending walk to Jonathan Villar. Following the ball four call, Pierzynski said something to Kulpa and was tossed from the game.
The video can be seen here.
"I obviously thought it was a strike, I was upset we walked the guy, I said a bad word and was ejected," Pierzynski said per MLB.com.
Kulpa explained after the game that Pierzynski was upset with the pitch prior to the walk.
"Pierzynski didn't like the pitch that I [called for a ball]. We had words about the [2-2] pitch," Kulpa told MLB.com. "And then [Darvish] walked [Villar] on the very next pitch and [Pierzynski] continued to argue on the pitch before. And so he got ejected."
With Pierzynski gone, Rangers back-up backstop Geovany Soto put his gear on and worked the rest of the game from behind the plate.
Darvish continued to hurl a no-hitter with Soto as his backstop until Carlos Corporan's homer with one out in the eighth inning. Darvish had previously been one out away from a perfect game in his first start of the season on April 2, also against the Astros at Minute Maid Park in Houston. That bid ended with a heart-wrenching single by Marwin Gonzalez.
When asked following the game if the catching switch rattled him, Darvish shook it off.
"Not at all," Darvish said to MLB.com. "I think Geo was watching the game and how A.J. was calling it, and the transition went pretty smoothly."
According to MLB.com, had Darvish thrown the no-no, he would have been just the third pitcher in MLB history to throw a complete game no-hitter with two different catchers.
Despite not making history, Darvish had a career-high 15 strikeouts while allowing just the lone hit in the Rangers' 2-1 win over the Astros.
Darvish, in his second MLB season, is 11-5 with a 2.72 ERA with an MLB-leading 192 strikeouts.
The Rangers (69-50) hold a one game lead over the Oakland Athletics in the AL West standings. Meanwhile, the Astros are the MLB's worst team with a 37-80 overall record in the team's inaugural season in the American League, and are 16 games behind the Rangers in the division race.
Pierzynski couldn't help but feel a little regret over Darvish not getting the no-hitter.
"Absolutely, you feel bad for the guy," he said to MLB.com.. "You feel bad for the pitcher and you feel bad for everybody associated with it. Because they don't happen a lot and when you get that close, you really want to try to get them done. Unfortunately, it didn't work out."
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