DETROIT -- Yu Darvish delivered his best performance in three starts this season, allowing one run on two hits in 6 1/3 innings and winning for the second time as the Rangers beat Detroit 10-3 on Thursday at Comerica Park.
The victory was the Rangers' seventh straight.
Mike Napoli homered for a fourth straight game, a solo shot in the second, and Michael Young had an RBI single in his first at-bat since leaving Tuesday's game with a sore back. The Rangers scored two unearned runs in the fifth without the benefit of a base hit, and scored once in the fifth without a ball leaving the infield for a 5-1 lead.
Darvish never trailed in his third major-league start, as Young's ground single scored Ian Kinsler in the first. Detroit had at least one base runner in the first four innings against Darvish, and pushed across a run in the fourth after opening with a walk and a double.
He ditched the full wind-up to start the fifth and produced his best inning, a perfect frame on nine pitches. He stuck with the stretch in a scoreless sixth, though 20 pitches in the inning pushed his count to 102.
Darvish started the seventh, but walked Alexi Avila. An error on Kinsler on a potential double-play grounder put runners at first and second, and Darvish went to a full count before striking out Jhonny Peralta on his 121st pitch.
That was enough for manager Ron Washington to summon Alexi Ogando from the bullpen, and he got two quick outs to end the threat.
Darvish's final line wasn't entirely clean. He walked five hitters while striking out five, but he got more swings and misses than he had in his previous two starts.
The Rangers then poured it on in the eighth, scoring five times. They have scored 18 runs in the eighth inning in their past four games. Nelson Cruz, Yorvit Torrealba and Kinsler had RBI doubles in the inning, and every Rangers player had at least one hit.
-- Jeff Wilson
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