Darvish goes two innings in exhibition debut

Japanese ace Yu Darvish pitched two scoreless innings with three strikeouts Wednesday in his first spring training start for the Texas Rangers in Peoria, Arizona. Darvish's first pitch as a Ranger was a fastball for a strike against the San Diego Padres' Cameron Maybin. Five pitches later, Darvish notched his first strikeout. "That feeling, that intensity is still not in midseason form, but I was happy to throw," Darvish said in an article posted on the team's website. Darvish allowed two hits, while he threw the first pitch for a strike to seven of the eight batters he faced. Twenty-six of his 36 pitches were for strikes. "I was not nervous at all," Darvish said. "Some of the players were teasing me about it before the game. I told them, 'No.' They said, 'You are! You are!'" The 25-year-old right-hander, who became a sensation for Japan's Nippon Ham Fighters, was obtained by the two-time defending American League champions after Texas spent the most money ever to obtain a Japanese prospect. The Rangers posted a winning bid of $51.7 million just for the right to talk with Darvish about a deal, that money going to the Fighters when Darvish signed a six-year deal with Texas worth $56 million plus incentives on January 18. Darvish was 93-38 with a 1.99 earned-run average over 164 starts over seven years in Japan, where he was twice named the league Most Valuable Player.