Yu Darvish left Tuesday's spring training game against the Cleveland Indians with a 7-2 lead, but it wasn't the start he or the Texas Rangers would've liked to have seen in Darvish's second spring start.
But rest easy, Rangers fans, it's just the spring.
Darvish went three innings in the outing and threw 61 pitches on a day he was supposed to be limited to 50 pitches. You'd think Ron Washington was just trying to see if Darvish could get out of the sticky situation he got himself in in the third inning, and he did so with minimal damage.
In all, Darvish allowed three hits, allowed two runs and struck out three with four walks on a day when he was struggling with his control, especially on his fastballs. In all, Darvish threw 29 strikes and 32 balls, which of course is never a good thing.
Darvish couldn't throw a strike to save his life in the first inning, walking the first two batters he saw. But Yorvit Torrealba came to the rescue throwing out both Michael Brantley and Asdrubal Cabrera on attempted steals at second base, then Darvish struck out Shin-Soo Choo on a 78 mph breaking ball.
In the second inning, Darvish dialed in, specifically with his off-speed stuff, and allowed one hit while striking out the final two batters on a two-seam fastball and a breaking ball in the dirt.
The third inning is where the wheels came off, as Darvish walked two more batters and needed 29 pitches to get out of the inning as he loaded the bases with no outs before inducing a double play to second base and getting a deep flyout to center field from slugger Travis Hafner.
Sports Connection
Connecting you to your favorite North Texas sports teams as well as sports news around the globe.
So there you go, folks. Yu Darvish's second spring start in a nutshell wasn't a thing of beauty like his debut might have been, but for all we know Darvish could've been working on a specific pitch. As you know, this is no need to freak out if you're a Rangers fan. Yu will be just fine.
