BLANK YOU, COME AGAIN: Josh Hamilton hangs his head after grounding into a double play in the first inning against Hiroki Kuroda. (Anthony J. Causi)
Hiroki Kuroda first started to notice the Yankee Stadium crowd reacting to his no-hit bid in the fifth inning, and after he finished his 3-0 complete-game, two-hit masterpiece against the Rangers, he delivered a message to the faithful:
“I feel bad I let down all the fans that expected a no-hitter,” Kuroda said through a translator.
Chances are, he will be forgiven.
Kuroda wasn’t exactly an afterthought when the Yankees signed him in the offseason, but they didn’t expect him to be their top starter heading into September, either.
With CC Sabathia battling a sore elbow, Andy Pettitte unsure of when he will return from a fractured ankle and various other bumps, bruises and unsteady pitching, Kuroda (11-8, 3.06 ERA) is pitching like the Yankees ace.
“You can only have so many starters on the DL and then you run out of big-league starters,” manager Joe Girardi said. “Eventually, your depth is tested.”
That wasn’t a problem last night, because Kuroda was in top form against a dangerous Texas lineup that was baffled all night by the right-hander. He didn’t give up a hit until Elvis Andrus started the seventh with a hard grounder up the middle that shortstop Jayson Nix grabbed with a diving play, but was left with no chance to get the speedy Andrus.
Earlier this season, Kuroda took a no-hitter into the sixth against the Mets on June 8 before Omar Quintanilla broke it up. And on July 7, 2008, while with the Dodgers, he had a hitless bid spoiled by Mark Teixeira in a one-hit shutout over the Braves.
“I was lucky — or unlucky — enough to get a hit off him when he had his perfect game bid in 2008,” Teixeira said. “And he had that kind of stuff where every batter was just going back to the dugout shaking their heads.”
Kuroda’s performance lately has been even more important because of the injuries to the rotation.
“He’s filled a void for us,” Teixeira said. “We’ve had Andy go down and CC go down. He had to be our No. 1 and fill in that role and you need that. You need a guy to go out there and throw a shutout every now and then because we’re not going to go out there and score runs every night.”
Though the Yankees had trouble getting started, the offense eventually got going.
After Derek Jeter’s one-out single in the seventh, Alexi Ogando replaced Matt Harrison (13-7) and provided just the change the Yankees were looking for. First, he served up a two-run homer to Nick Swisher, and then Teixeira immediately followed with another home run.
Girardi had no trouble sending Kuroda back out for the ninth with 97 pitches.
“His pitch count was down and his stuff was good,” the manager said.
Kuroda had even less trouble finishing off the Rangers, retiring them in order to notch his first nine-inning complete game of the season. He walked just two and struck out five.
“That’s a very good lineup he just shut down,” Girardi said. “It was probably our best pitching performance this year.”
If the rest of the season goes as planned, Kuroda will have to pitch in some important games and that’s something his teammates are confident he will embrace.
“He’s a competitor and likes the spotlight,” said Russell Martin, who also caught Kuroda with the Dodgers. “He pitches well under pressure. He thrives on it. He’s not afraid of it.”
dan.martin@nypost.com