The Oakland Athletics (24-22) will continue their series against the Texas Rangers (29-16) after taking the opening game on the road with a 9-2 win. Tuesday's matchup will begin at 8:05 p.m. ET at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington and will air live on Fox Southwest, MLB.com with a paid subscription and free here.
Texas will look to bounce back with Japanese phenom Yu Darvish (7-1). Darvish looks to capture his sixth straight victory while holding on to an impressive 2.97 ERA. The right-hander is leading the majors in strikelouts with 86, and is tied with two others for second in wins, trailing only Tampa Bay's Matt Moore.
"I only have won 20 or so games here in the big leagues," Darvish told the team's official website. "I don't think I'm at a point where you guys can compare me to the top pitchers in Major League Baseball. I'm not even at the starting point."
Darvish is 5-0 with a 3.07 ERA and has struck out 58 batters in 41 innings over his last six starts, the longest single-season winning streak in the majors. His career best winning streak was eight consecutive starts with Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters of the Japanese league from April 19-June 8, 2011.
"The thing about Yu Darvish, he bends but he never breaks," manager Ron Washington said.
Oakland will start right-hander Dan Straily. Straily is coming off a loss that saw him allow four earned runs in 4.1 innings of work against Texas. However, the Athletics are riding the momentum of a four game winning streak and six wins of their last ten games.
"I think the Oakland Athletics are a great team and I still have to study a lot and look at videos and make adjustments when I face them in a game situation," Darvish said. "They're a really good team and I just have to pitch my game."
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