h as Bird, Taurasi, Tamika Catchings, Lindsay Whalen and Seimone Augustus -- nearly half of the 12-player roster -- will almost surely be retired by the next Summer Games.Japan will

HOUSTON -- With every swing and miss, this looked as if it might be the day Yu Darvish pitched a no-hitter against the overmatched Houston Astros. And then with one out in the eighth inning, Carlos Corporan ended Darvishs latest bid with a home run. Darvish once again neared perfection versus Houston, striking out a career-high 15 and permitting only one hit in eight innings as the Texas Rangers won 2-1 Monday for their season-high eighth straight victory. "A wins a win," Darvish said through a translator. "Im just glad I was a big part of this win." Texas won for the 13th time in 14 games and headed home atop the AL West. In early April, Darvish (12-5) was one out away from a perfect game at Minute Maid Park before Marwin Gonzalez singled between his legs. Darvish joined Nolan Ryan as the only pitchers in team history to have more than one start of at least eight innings with one hit or less. Darvish became the first pitcher to have two no-hitters broken up in the eighth inning or later since it happened to Justin Verlander in 2011. Outfielder Alex Rios chased Corporans drive to the wall, but had to watch as it sailed about five rows into the stands. Darvish simply looked around, and then wiped his brow with his arm before preparing to throw his next pitch. "Well, Id like to see it happen of course," manager Ron Washington said. "But those are professional hitters over there, too, and Corporan caught one." Until the homer, Houstons lone runner came when rookie Jonathan Villar drew a two-out walk on a full count in the sixth. Texas catcher A.J. Pierzynski was ejected for arguing with plate umpire Ron Kulpa about a 2-2 breaking pitch he called low -- Pierzynski was tossed after Villar walked. "Was it a strike? I dont know," Pierzynski said. "Obviously I thought it was and Ron didnt, and I was upset we walked the guy and I said a bad word and I was ejected." Darvish was perplexed by the actions of his catcher. "When he got ejected, I thought, What is he doing?" Darvish said with a laugh. The two-time All-Star ace from Japan was sharp all game, retiring the last two batters in eighth and exiting after increasing his major league-leading strikeout total to 207. "He used everything today: slider, curveball, cutter, fastball," Washington said. "He moved it around, kept them off-balance. When they were looking for breaking balls he was throwing fastballs and cutters and when they were looking for cutters he was throwing breaking balls." "I was pretty locked in," he said. Darvish struck out 14 in four prior games this year, including his earlier gem at Houston. His 15 strikeouts on Monday matched his career-high from his professional career in Japan. He is 3-0 with a 1.52 ERA and 37 strikeouts in three starts in Houston this season, and is 4-1 with a 1.31 ERA and 50 strikeouts in five starts since returning from the disabled list. Joe Nathan pitched a perfect ninth for his 35th save. The AL West-leading Rangers took a quick lead over the last-place Astros. With two outs in the first, Ian Kinsler and Adrian Beltre doubled and Pierzynski hit an RBI single off Brett Oberholtzer (2-1). Oberholtzer yielded seven hits and two runs with six strikeouts in 6 2-3 innings for his first loss in three major league starts. The Houston hitters had no such luck with Darvish. Darvish was strong from the start relying mostly on a four-seam fastball, sliders and a cutter against the Astros inexperienced lineup. "He doesnt just have control. This guy has command," Houston manager Bo Porter said. "He can throw every pitch the way he wants to throw it, even out of the strike zone. Which, when you have that kind of repertoire, youre going to be up against it." He struck out the side in the first inning before getting two fly outs and a ground out in the second. The 26-year-old righty fanned two each in the third and fourth innings, struck out the side in the fifth and the first batter of the sixth inning. His strikeout of Chris Carter to start the fifth was his 200th of the season, giving him a team record for fewest games (23) needed to reach the mark. In the sixth, Darvish started walking off the mound after his close pitch to Villar. Pierzynski also began heading to the dugout, but Kulpa said it missed. Pierzynski didnt like the call. After the walk, started yelling in Kulpas face and was quickly tossed. Geovany Soto took over at catcher. Darvish, a two-time MVP in Japan, flirted with perfection last Sept. 3, too, retiring the first 17 batters at Kansas City. NOTES: Injured Texas DH Lance Berkman is getting Monday off and will DH for Double-A Frisco on Tuesday and Wednesday and will be re-evaluate him after that. ... Neftali Feliz, who was expected to throw Saturday for Round Rock but did not pitch as a precaution because of mild right arm triceps tendinitis, has been shut down. Feliz has been rehabbing from Tommy John surgery last year. ... Darvish set rookie franchise records for wins (16) and strikeouts (221) last season. He finished third in AL Rookie of the Year voting behind winner Mike Trout and Oakland outfielder Yoenis Cespedes.Wholesale Puma Shoes . The return match will take place next Wednesday. Udinese leads Fiorentina 2-1 in the other semifinal. Napoli staged a second-half comeback from two goals down after Gervinhos opener and a stunning strike from Kevin Strootman. Discount Puma Uk . The lawyers filed a 33-page amended complaint Tuesday in federal court in Manhattan, expanding on the suit originally filed Oct. 3 in New York Supreme Court. Arbitrator Fredric Horowitz last week refused to compel Selig to testify in the grievance, and Rodriguez then walked out of the hearing without testifying. http://www.discountpumauk.com/ .com) - The red-hot Los Angeles Kings will try to extend their winning streak to a season-high seven games when they visit the Edmonton Oilers for Sundays clash at Rexall Place. Cheap Puma Shoes . - NASCAR announced a 33-race schedule for the 2014 Nationwide Series with virtually no changes from this years slate. Clearance Puma Shoes .Y. -- Bills receiver Stevie Johnson has a bone to pick with the NFL schedule maker.RIO DE JANEIRO -- The Japanese womens basketball team talked the upbeat pregame talk that any team worth a nickel usually does. But once this quarterfinal knockout game at the Rio Summer Olympics started, the Japanese were actually backing the talk up against the heavily favored U.S. as if theyd cribbed every trick that prohibitive underdogs from Princeton to Chaminade, Danny & the Miracles to Jackie Stiles and Southeastern Oklahoma State used once upon a time.The Japanese cut, they curled off well-set screens, they dribbled and drove and made kickout passes to perimeters shooters who shot like they never expected to miss. For a while it was so effective you might have expected to see Pete Carril in their huddle during a timeout. They played a now you see us, now you dont brand of uptempo basketball that dared the Americans to keep up, but they brought out the best in the Americans, too. The U.S. was grateful for the push.Japan trailed by as little as 46-44 near the end of the second quarter before the U.S. quashed any thoughts of a monumental upset and limited Japan to just 18 points over the last two quarters for a 110-64 win.We needed this kind of game, we needed this, American guard Angel McCoughtry said.They were hard to handle, they had us worried, Diana Taurasi said. That was the first time we went into the locker room here and said, Weve got to get this going.The U.S. now moves into Thursdays semifinal round opposite France, which defeated Canada on Tuesday. Spain plays in the other semifinal against Serbia, the reigning European champs who upset Australia earlier in the day 73-71, sending the Aussies home without a medal for the first time since 1992.For an American team that has steamrolled its way through these Olympic Games by winning its first five game by an average margin of 40 points, you could tell parts of this game were fun. The Americans had a total of only 10 days of practice together to prepare for these Games, and until they were tested like this, McCouughtry said, they didnt really know how theyd respond.ddddddddddddThe answer, as it turned out, was that everyone played well. The U.S. shot 67 percent from the field against the undersized Japanese team, whose tallest player is 6-foot-3.The only downbeat outcome of the game for the U.S. was that Sue Bird, the teams four-time Olympic point guard, left the game after suffering an undisclosed knee injury in a second-quarter collision. On the advice of the team trainer and doctors, she didnt return. When asked after the game if she was OK as she was walking through the mixed zone press area, Bird nodded and said, Oh yeah.Taurasi said, Hopefully everything will check out OK in the morning.Bird always tried to tell people the womens basketball team will have a game or two at every international competition thats interesting like this. She swears these Olympic competitions arent automatic American wins. But its always a hard sell.The American women have won five straight gold medals. Theyre riding a 47-game winning streak. The gap between them and the rest of the worlds Olympic teams seems to have gotten wider in the last three or four Olympics, not narrower. But theres a generational shift underway, too. Thirty-somethings such as Bird, Taurasi, Tamika Catchings, Lindsay Whalen and Seimone Augustus -- nearly half of the 12-player roster -- will almost surely be retired by the next Summer Games.Japan will host those Olympics, in Tokyo.So remember this night.American coach Geno Auriemma called Japans offense as good as Ive ever seen as far as how quickly they move the ball and how quickly they move themselves.Taurasi said Japan is just a couple of pieces away from being one of the top four or five teams in the world.But not only that.Whewwww, said McCoughtry, the U.S. teams most vocal worrier, exhaling heavily. It was tough chasing them around and around. ' ' '