Darvish pitches one inning in spring debut

SURPRISE, Ariz. -- Yu Darvish made his spring debut by pitching one inning in an intrasquad game on Tuesday. He allowed one run, threw 24 pitches and blamed everything on shortstop Elvis Andrus.

"Overall, I feel fine and relaxed," Darvish said. "But because of that no-name shortstop that committed that error on the routine ground ball, I don't even know his name, because of his error, I had to throw a lot of pitches."

Darvish started the game by walking Jurickson Profar, who then stole second. Craig Gentry followed with the ground ball that got past Andrus as he tried to make a routine play.

"It was a base hit," Andrus said with a smile. "Fast runner, Gentry."

Manager Ron Washington overruled him.

"Error," Washington said. "Elvis makes that play. He just took it for granted."

Profar ended up on third and scored on Geovany Soto's sacrifice fly. Darvish retired the next two hitters. He was also kidding about Andrus.

"He told me he was going to tell you guys that," Andrus said. "If I can leave all my errors in Spring Training, I will."

Added Ian Kinsler: "If we're worrying about that error and our shortstop messing up that ball in the first game, we're worrying about too much."

Darvish's first outing in an intrasquad game last year was broadcast back to Japan. This one is not getting the same royal treatment.

"I'm disappointed," catcher A.J. Pierzynski said. "I'm big in Japan. My sponsorships must have gone down."