And The Beat Goes On: May 17th

And now for something from the not-house-music division:

● ESPN Dallas recaps last night's Yu Darvish-driven win. So does the Star-Telegram. So does MLB.com.

● Gerry Fraley says that Yu Darvish's rapid progress is "a surprise to all except Darvish," which is probably selling short the fan base's expectation level for Darvish over this season's first few months. Richard Durrett quotes Darvish as saying that he utilized his fastball as an out pitch more so than he did in previous outings on Wednesday night. Ron Washington says that winning is the only thing Darvish has ever known. 

● T.R. Sullivan talks about the upcoming weekend set in Houston, and why the Silver Boot may be about to embark upon its farewell tour, as the two people who cared most about it were Tom Hicks and Drayton McLane. 

● Mike Napoli sympathizes with now-deposed Angels hitting coach Mickey Hatcher, and believes that he was a scapegoat for the failures of the Angels' lineup. 

● Kevin Sherrington dabbles around in the realm of Josh Hamilton and Jurickson Profar for Matt Kemp trades. Hamilton is looking at getting a day off in the near future. Ian Kinsler was out last night with a stomach bug, but I recall reading somewhere that he was available after about the fourth inning or thereabouts, and I assume that he'll be available to start this afternoon's series finale. Drew Davison writes about Yorvit Torrealba trying to find some sort of groove at the plate. The Star-Telegram's notes mention that the Rangers are still waiting to hear the final outcome from MLB's investigation into the Jairo Beras situation.

● Gary Sinise was better in "Hostage" than he was at throwing out last night's first pitch.

● And now for something completely unrelated to baseball: I'll be at The Door in Deep Ellum tonight for Phonte's and 9th Wonder's tour date in Dallas. If you're among the handful of hip-hop fans who consume BBTiA on a regular basis, stop down for a nice rap/sabermetrics discussion. We'll do that BBTiA Night in a seedy parking lot behind Luby's soon enough.