No, Yu didn't.

Texas Rangers right-hander Yu Darvish came within one out of pitching a perfect game Tuesday, allowing a hard single through his legs and up the middle to Houston's Marwin Gonzalez after he had retired the first 26 batters.

"I think my teammates are more disappointed than I am," Darvish told reporters after the game.

Darvish struck out 14 and threw 111 pitches before being taken out by manager Ron Washington just one out short of matching Kenny Rogers for the only perfect game in club history. Regardless, Darvish's performance was an example of what made the Rangers pay $111 million for his services before the 2012 season, when he came over from Japan. He's not just hype.

Teammate Nelson Cruz said Darvish was "like a video game." The Astros just didn't have nearly enough quarters to play.

Not only was Evan Longoria of the Tampa Bay Rays out of his mind playing third base Tuesday, he said he also was out of his body.

Longoria made three outstanding defensive plays of varying difficulty against the Baltimore Orioles, including a spectacular dive to his left in the fifth inning to rob speedy Adam Jones that also required a roll and a throw from his rear — all in one motion.

[Also: Texas Rangers' Yu Darvish falls one out short of a perfect game]

Longoria also made two other athletic plays, both similar-looking dives and throws — appearing to knock down the ball both times before picking it up and firing — to get the speedy Brian Roberts in the fourth and the less-speedy Matt Wieters in the ninth.

The Orioles won 7-4 thanks to a big seventh inning against Tampa Bay's bullpen, but Longoria's plays kept the Rays in the game. And his own performance got Longoria thinking in existential terms:

#Rays Longoria on his plays at 3B: "It's kind of that Ron Burgundy moment where you just black out and you don't really know what happened."

— Adam Berry (@adamdberry) April 2, 2013

I've seen the film "Anchorman" one or two dozen times, but I'm not sure what Longoria is getting at.

Update: A few readers have noted that Longo might be confusing "Anchorman" with another Will Ferrell vehicle, "Old School."

(AP)

Remember, April Fools' was yesterday. The hiring of hip-hop superstar Jay-Z to be his agent — along with the firing of Scott Boras on Tuesday — must bode well for Robinson Cano returning to the New York Yankees next season. You have to figure that Jay-Z wouldn't take Cano out of New York. He might not even take Cano on a free-agency tour, which Boras surely would have done, given that Cano's contract with the Yankees expires after this season. That means the Los Angeles Dodgers and Washington Nationals wouldn't get a crack at offering Cano a ridiculous amount and thus driving up his price from a more reasonable ridiculous amount the Yankees might want to pay him.

In case you don't believe the union: Here's an Instagram of Cano and Shawn Carter signing on the line which is dotted. All aboard the Hova-craft!

You might recall another famous rapper attempting to rep pro athletes. Master P didn't do so hot with Ricky Williams and others. Jay-Z's foray into the biz, with a new agency he has formed called Roc Nation, can be considered a rebirth of the rock-n-jock genre. And so again, "representin' " has a literal and figurative meaning in the hip-hop world. (And no word if this means Billy Butler of the Royals will be hiring Blake Shelton.)

Jay-Z won't be going into this alone. (Jigga, please.) Roc Nation is partnering with CAA to do this sports agent thing. CAA knows what it's doing. Here's Cano's take, in a canned statement via the Roc Nation website:

(AP)

The Juice returns for season No. 6! It's almost eligible for free-agency! Stop by daily for news from the action, along with great photos, stats, video highlights and more.

Bo just knows, OK? The first pitch for the first Juice of the season is an actual first pitch — a ceremonial one, tossed by none other than Bo Jackson at U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago. Not familiar with Bo? Oh, lemme tell ya about Bo Jackson. He's only the the greatest athlete in the history of sports, according to many, and he played with the Kansas City Royals, Chicago White Sox and the Los Angeles Angels in the 1980s and 1990s. Not to mention, he was famous for also being a running back for the Los Angeles Raiders (they've since moved back to Oakland), for running up the outfield fence and for knowing how to play the guitar like Bo Diddley.

After Bo threw a strike to old teammate Robin Ventura, the White Sox and Royals threw many more strikes. Chris Sale just narrowly outpitched James Shields — a solo home run

(AP)

Temperatures dropped into the mid-30s with 17 mph winds at Minneapolis' Target Field for opening day Monday, so Detroit Tigers slugger Prince Fielder overreacted like some people do and dressed for a Vikings-Packers game in December (in pre-domes 1973).

The question is, does he look more like Lloyd Bridges from "Sea Hunt," a new Milwaukee Brewers Racing Sausage or a new Minion from the "Despicable Me" children's movie series? Regardless, he was able to function in the cold and the gear, helping the Tigers beat the Twinkies by a 4-2 score. And not a single case of frostbite was recorded by either team.

#Yankees #OpeningDay lineup: Gardner CFNunez SSCano 2BYoukilis 1BWells LFFrancisco DHIchiro RFNix 3BCervelli CSabathia P

— New York Yankees (@Yankees) April 1, 2013

Because of extensive injuries to roughly $10 billion in payroll, this is the best the New York Yankees can do for an opening-day lineup. In a lot of ways, there's even more pressure than usual on the Boston Red Sox to beat the Yankees, given how their 1-through-9 shapes against left-hander Jon Lester on Monday.

And there's a problem with saying, "You better take advantage now, because they'll heal eventually and be back to the old Yankees."

(AP)The Houston Astros obviously are going to do things differently now that they're in American League. On opening day, they used one of their starting pitchers to get the save.

Erik Bedard, whose turn in the rotation isn't scheduled to come until next weekend, went the final 3 1/3 innings of Houston's 8-2 victory against the Texas Rangers on Sunday night. Bedard retired the first eight batters he faced and threw 26 of 38 pitches for strikes in setting down the Rangers. He allowed only a shallow single to Nelson Cruz.

Starter Bud Norris allowed two runs over 5 2/3 innings, with Bedard starting his "piggyback" by getting out of a mini-jam in the sixth and the Astros ahead 4-2. And he didn't leave until the final out was recorded. Bedard's appearance recalled a time when men were men and they went multiple innings to get the save, notably before the 1990s.

[Infographic: MLB opening day team payrolls]

Of his first 192 career appearances, 189 of them came as a starting pitcher — and all of his bullpen work had come in 2002 and 2004, Bedard's first seasons in the league. His first start of 2013 will be Saturday, so he knew appearing against the Rangers was possible. What he didn't want, the Houston Chronicle reports, was to warm up in the bullpen and then for manager Bo Porter to not use him:

(via ESPN)

That didn't take long.

I promise, we're not going to do a post every time an umpire makes a mistake. But, with it being opening night in Major League Baseball, and with the country watching (presumably) the Texas Rangers at the Houston Astros on Sunday night, it's worth noting that the boys in blue did not get off to a roaring start this season. At least one of the boys.

Umpire Andy Fletcher missed two calls in the first three innings. In the bottom of the first, he called Jose Altuve of the Astros out at second base on a stolen base attempt. TV replays show Altuve's foot reached the bag before infielder Elvis Andrus tagged him following a one-hop throw from catcher A.J. Pierzynski. Here's an animation to prove it.

[Fantasy Baseball 2013: There's still time to join a league today!]

To end the top of the third, Fletcher called Andrus out on a blooper to shallow center that Justin Maxwell actually had trapped. Here's an animation to prove it.

The Altuve call also prompted the first argument in the career of new Astros manager Bo Porter, who came out to question Fletcher but didn't delay the game long. Getting thrown out, over that call, on opening day, in the first inning of the Astros first American League game, well, it would have been awesome. But it didn't happen. That doesn't mean Porter should be satisfied.

And the calls did not seem to impact the outcome of Houston's 8-2 victory, the 4,000th regular-season win in club history. That doesn't mean we should be satisfied with the umpiring.