Yu Darvish has thrown five innings of Cactus League baseball this spring, and he's yet to surrender a run or a hit after his three-inning outing on Monday against the San Diego Padres, which ended as a 5-4 Rangers win.
On the day, Darvish walked two, gave up no hits and had three strikeouts in his three innings of work, and he claimed to not have his best stuff, which made him even happier with his outing.
"I think the definition of a good pitcher is to get outs when you don't have your good stuff," Darvish told ESPN Dallas through his interpreter. "I did that today, so I think it was a good outing."
No one else seemed to notice that Darvish didn't have his A-plus stuff on Monday, including his manager, who was thrilled with the diversity of Darvish's arsenal.
"He had an electric fastball and a good slider today and threw a couple big breaking balls, but his slider was outstanding today," Ron Washington said. "When you have a repertoire like he has, and with his experience as far as being a good pitcher goes, he doesn't worry about it, he just goes to something else that works."
