American Food Is Making It Tough For Yu To Stay In Shape

Like pretty much every Major Leaguer we’ve ever encountered, 25-year-old Japanese pitcher Yu Darvish is focused more on working on different areas of his game this spring than trying to dominate opposing hitters in ultimately meaningless spring training games. But that hasn’t stopped the Japanese media--and there are a lot of Japanese media in Surprise, Az. this month--from criticizing Darvish.

According to the account on the Dallas Morning News’ website today, said media has accused Darvish of not being his usual self this spring. Darvish, meanwhile, is just focused on preparing for his first season in the Majors, as evidenced by his remarks after his Monday outing.

''Today, I pitched more for situations,'' Darvish told The Mainichi Daily News, per the Morning News. ''Trying to get a ground ball to a certain side in a certain situation, or getting a ground ball when I needed to. I focused on how to get the guy out.''

It wasn’t strictly shop-talk with Darvish following his start Monday; he also joked with the media, saying that American food was making it harder for him to keep up with his conditioning. And to this point, we can say, us too.