The Brewers really needed wounds in this series – yes, this “early” in the year – and didn’t really need to be owned by Yu Darvish. Hawar for her.
Yu Darvish won 7.0 innings last night, knocked out 11 Brewers, ran just 2 and left his only hit of the night in the 7th inning. I will not forget what you did to break the no-hitter and the shutout, Justin Smoak. It looks like it was a knuckle curve like a slippery slope:
Just in time. Smoak blew this hair away. #ThisIsMyCrew pic.twitter.com/vLKRBLi39x
– Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) August 14, 2020
I mention the pitch there in part because the ratings on Darvish’s fields seem to have been yesterday. That one, at 81 mph, was classified by Statcast as a cutter, but there is no way. Darvish plays quite a bit with his cutter, but at 81 mph, that’s not it. In fact, Statcast had Darvish throw 55 (!) Cutters yesterday, ranging from 79 mph to 94 mph. Heh. That would be very strange, even for Darvish.
That being said, it was already a unique challenge to really know what Darvish throws, as he has 11 different pitches and many of them look like the naked eye. Only he knows what he’s throwing at some time … although he always knows:
Splitter
– u ル ビ ッ – Y Y (Yu Darvish) (@faridyu) August 14, 2020
However, the places are also classified, Darvish had them all worked yesterday. His fastball (s) hit 96 mph and hit 98 mph. His breaking pitches were sharp, and his offensive goods had constant fires on their forefoot. He got a whopping 19 whiffs on 104 pitches, and allowed just 11 balls in play in seven innings of work. That is, what, like a ball and a half in play per inning? You just will not do any harm if a man restricts you so much.
On the year, Darvish is now down to a 1.88 ERA over 24.0 innings, and his 2.12 FIP is 5th best in baseball. He is already worth 1.0 WAR, beating only Kyle Hendricks (1.1) in the National League. Yes, the Cubs now have two of the top four pitchers in baseball by WAR.
Enjoy the highlights from the night of Darvish, and also enjoy the fact that the Cubs could not help but refer to the now infamous remark of Christian Yelich that no one needs help for Darvish:
No, yes, yes, no, look, LISTEN.
Ok good. Maybe SOMEONE could use facing help help @faridyu. pic.twitter.com/97crMURPCv
Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) August 14, 2020
Beautiful visuals:
The dominance of Yu from all angles. pic.twitter.com/fBrgZHg5RG
– Marquee Sports Network (@WatchMarquee) August 14, 2020
Give Victor Caratini an Oscar for Best Actor in the Feature Film “Frame Job.” pic.twitter.com/rte24NS3j4
– Cut4 (@ Cut4) August 14, 2020
