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After surrendering 3 home runs to him in a week, Yu Darvish blames Brett Gardner's parents

Kevin Jairaj / USA Today Sports

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On the third inning on Monday night, Brett Gardner punched a Yu Darvish pitch over the right field wall in Arlington for his 11th home run of the season. Two innings later, he did it again, this time taking Darvish for a ride to center for his 12th of the campaign.

These came just a few days after Gardner took Darvish out at Yankee Stadium on July 23 and pushed the lefty's line against the Japanese import to .667/.667/2.167 on the season. That's 4-for-6 with three solo home runs (thanks for the baserunners, guys).

At a loss for an explanation on Monday, Darvish placed the blame squarely on the two people responsible for Gardner's success against him:

"It's not my fault they made such a good hitter" is about as good an excuse as they come, especially considering Gardner's father Jerry played minor league ball himself. And Darvish is, of course, afforded the opportunity to be humorous considering his Rangers were victorious on Monday.

Perhaps also to blame is Darvish catching just a little too much of the plate on the three pitches in question:

[Courtesy Baseball Savant]

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