Everyone was up in arms a couple of weeks back when Yu Darvish threw 130 pitches with a six-run lead and worked eight innings in a blowout of the Detroit Tigers and Justin Verlander, and it was understandable as to why people felt that way.
Once again, Darvish invoked opinions from the masses on Sunday when he was removed after seven innings of work and just 99 pitches, leaving the game with a 1-0 lead before the Rangers' bullpen blew the lead only to see Jurickson Profar get it back with a swing of the bat and help the Rangers win 2-1.
People whined that Washington pulled the trigger too early on removing Darvish, but after the game when asked about it Washington shed some light on the situation, saying Darvish said he was tired after the seventh inning and, of course, made the move to replace him in the eighth with Neal Cotts.
"I wasn't going to send him back out there when he was feeling fatigued," Washington said.
Sounds like pretty sound strategy there.
Darvish's 27-pitch second inning might have eventually played a factor in Darvish tiring. Well, that and the fact that he was pitching in a tight game the entire time instead of a big lead like he got in that highly billed duel with Verlander a couple of weeks ago.
"I told them after the seventh inning that I was a little bit fatigued," Darvish said. "But I told them that I could still pitch. But I also told them that it might be better off with [Tanner] Scheppers than with taking me out to the mound again in the next inning.
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Scheppers or Cotts, it didn't matter. Both are very effective this season. Washington did nothing wrong here, folks. Time to move along.
