ARLINGTON, Texas -- Texas Rangers pitcher Yu Darvish became the 16th rookie and just the sixth in American League history to strike out at least 200 batters. Darvish reached the mark in the fifth inning of Friday's game against the Seattle Mariners with a strikeout of right fielder Carlos Peguero. He ended up striking out the side in the inning and finished his outing with nine strikeouts to push his total to 205.
Darvish is also just the third AL rookie to reach the 200-strikeout plateau since 1976. He joins Mark Langston (204 in 1984 for the Mariners) and Daisuke Matsuzaka (201 in 2007 for the Boston Red Sox).
Darvish has a big-league high eight games of 10 or more strikeouts, including double-digit strikeouts in six of his last 14 starts. Darvish joins Nolan Ryan (1989, 90) as the only Rangers pitchers with as many as eight 10-or-more strikeout games in one season.
Here's the list of rookies since division play began in 1969 to have 200 strikeouts in a season (according to Elias Sports Bureau and Stats, Inc.):
1969: Tom Griffin, Houston -- 200
1970: Bob Johnson, Kansas City -- 206
1975: John Montefusco, San Francisco -- 215
1984: Dwight Gooden, New York Mets -- 276
1984: Mark Langston, Seattle -- 204
1995: Hideo Nomo, Los Angeles Dodgers -- 236
1998: Kerry Wood, Chicago Cubs -- 233
2007: Daisuke Matsuzaka, Boston -- 201
2012: Yu Darvish, Texas -- 205
