Cleveland Indians manager Manny Acta decided to go at Texas Rangers pitcher Yu Darvish with an all-lefty batting lineup on Sunday and it led to a 4-2 victory for the Indians.
Darvish came into the game giving up a .263 batting average to left-handed batters, while holding down right-handed batters to a measly .196 batting average, so the move by Acta proved to be a smart one.
The third inning on Sunday is where the Indians scored their first three runs of the game, but it also exemplified the up-and-down performance that Darvish can be expected to have in his debut season in Major League Baseball.
He started the inning by giving up a single, a walk and a double, but then struck out the next two batters. Then Darvish gave up another hit, and this one scored a run that wasn't on Darvish, rather a fielding error on shortstop Elvis Andrus.
The Indians scored again when Jason Kipnis bombed a solo shot deep to right field. Texas couldn't get any offense going until the eighth inning, when Josh Hamilton brought in a run with a groundout to first base, then Michael Young followed that up with an RBI-single to right field, which made the score 4-2.
With the loss, the Rangers drop to 18-10 while the Indians remain atop the American League Central Division with a 15-11 mark on the season.
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