Thank Yu.

He may not be the player you’re thinking about right now if you stayed up for Texas 2, Los Angeles 1, or caught the highlights on Quick Pitch this morning.

He may not be that other player who defined the win for you, either.

Yu Darvish didn’t record the Rangers’ 84th win but he sure as hell was as responsible for it as anyone, including Adrian and Elvis, who had brilliant, decisive moments of their own.

Yu started 17 of 25 Angels with a strike and recorded 17 of his 20 outs on the ground or on strikes and issued just one walk — the first batter he faced — and scattered three hits and needed only 95 pitches to get through nearly seven even though he struck out nine and, most importantly, Yu emerged from a skidding rotation to give the Rangers a dominant effort and, next most importantly, gave the bullpen a breather, as Matt Bush and Sam Dyson were asked to record just seven outs, which they were able to do over the span of nine batters.

I can’t remember who said it, but I saw someone mention this week that run differential is one thing, but win differential is another. The Astros and Mariners are out-run-diff’ing Texas (which is +26 in wins, +19 in runs), but the Rangers now sit 9.5 and 10.5 games ahead of them, and, before this month ends, those two numbers are going to allow the Rangers to get their house in order going into 162+.

Yu Darvish shoving like he did last night is one loud step in that exact direction.