San Diego Padres Japanese pitcher Darvish Yu, 37, suffered his worst outing of the season. His streak of five or more innings pitched since last year ended at 37 games.
Darvish started the 2023 Major League Baseball game against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, N.Y., on Monday (Sept. 29) and gave up seven runs on seven hits (one home run) in 2⅔ innings with two strikeouts and no walks. Darvish’s fifth-inning exit was the first time since April 13 of last year against the San Francisco Giants (nine runs in 1⅔ innings) that his streak of 37 consecutive starts of five or more innings was snapped.
The San Diego offense scored seven runs, led by Kim Ha-Sung, who batted seventh, going 1-for-2 with a double, two walks, three runs scored and a stolen base, but could not overcome the aftermath of Darvish’s early collapse. Darvish, who suffered his fourth loss of the season (three earned) in the team’s 7-10 loss, saw his ERA skyrocket from 3.67 to 4.61.
After going 2-2 with a 3.16 ERA in his first seven starts, he has struggled in his last three, going 1-2 with a 9.00 ERA. In the first inning, he gave up a solo home run to Aaron Judge in left-center to tie the game 1-1. A three-pitch cutter down the middle led to the home run. He has allowed a home run in four straight games. 스포츠토토
Struck out three in the second inning, but couldn’t hold on in the third. Allowed five straight hits, starting with a double to leadoff hitter Kyle Higashioka and followed by singles to Anthony Volpi, Glavier Torres, Aaron Judge and Anthony Rizzo to make it a 3-4 game.
DJ LeMahieu then hit a home run to center field, where Trent Grisham made a picturesque jumping catch for the first out. Darvish, who gave up the fifth run on Harrison Bader’s grounder to shortstop with runners on third and fourth, was lifted when Bader gave up an RBI double to Willie Calhoun.
He used nine pitches, including a 96.7-mph four-seam fastball (10), a sinker (13), a slider (nine), a sweeper (eight), a curve (seven), a knuckleball, a cutter (six over), a splitter (three) and a changeup (one), but couldn’t escape the heat.
With two outs, reliever Drew Carlton gave up an RBI single to Isaiah Kainer-Palepa to extend Darvish’s lead to seven runs. It was Darvish’s most runs allowed in a single game since his major league debut, and his 10th game with seven or more runs. It’s not uncommon for a player to collapse this badly once in a season, but the recent three-game slump has been a growing concern.
According to Japanese media such as Sports Nippon, Darvish said after the game, “I didn’t do anything particularly bad. In the first inning or two, it wasn’t bad at all, but from the third inning on, no matter what I threw, the batters’ timing was right. I want to check everything again today, from my condition to the pitches I threw and my delivery ratio.” “I was worried about my sweeper, but my delivery wasn’t that bad. A lot of my slow curveballs were higher than usual,” he said.
“I realized that the American League East is definitely different,” said Darvish, who was hit hard in the middle of the batting order. Not just the Yankees, but the Tampa Bay Rays and Boston Red Sox, they pay attention to detail. The level is very high. It was a learning experience in that regard,” he said, adding that he was caught off guard by the opposition. San Diego manager Bob Melvin said, “Darvish’s pitches weren’t very good. I don’t know if they came in looking for a good pitch or if his command wasn’t good, but there are days like that.”
Darvish signed a six-year, $108 million extension with San Diego in February. He went 16-8 with a 3.10 ERA and 197 strikeouts in 30 games (194⅔ innings) last year, and the Padres locked him up for six years with one year left before free agency. He’s guaranteed through 2028, when he’ll be 42, but has had a shaky first year.