World News

San Diego Padres pitcher lasts just 1-plus inning

https://www.profitableratecpm.com/f4ffsdxe?key=39b1ebce72f3758345b2155c98e6709c

Several circles formed in a tiny, quiet visiting clubhouse Thursday night at Wrigley Field as the San Diego Padres assessed a season cut short.

The biggest was the one that congregated around 22-year-old Jackson Merrill, the future of a team with many pieces in place next year. That group included the likes of Nick Pivetta and Gavin Sheets, all of them with a beer in hand as they chatted quietly amid reporters shuffling between lockers.

Off to the side, a 39-year-old Yu Darvish sat next to a 33-year-old Manny Machado as pitching coach Ruben Niebla stopped by.

They are cornerstone pieces, too, but the shortest start of Darvish’s long, storied carried only sharpened the focus on an ailing right elbow that sidelined him for parts of the last three seasons and was an issue for him even after he finally joined the rotation in July.

Darvish is owed another $46 million through 2028, but in the wake of a 3-1 loss to the Chicago Cubs that ended the Padres’ season, he was in no place mentally to even begin to digest what it’s going to take for him to pitch next season.

“I mean, we just got through — we just lost, our season just ended,” Darvish said through interpreter Shingo Horie. “That’s something I’ll go into the offseason and think about. I can’t really wrap my mind around that right now.”

There’s a lot to consider.

Between seven years in Japan and 13 years in the majors, there’s more than 3,080 innings on that right arm. It’s been a decade since Darvish lost the 2015 season to Tommy John surgery. He finished this season with career worsts in ERA (5.38), strikeout rate (8.5 per nine innings) and home run rate (1.8 per nine).

He had to lower his arm slot just to make it through this season. Even after making it through the final 15 starts of the year, he framed the opportunity to shift into a new gear in October like this:

“Once you go into the playoffs, it’s like you don’t necessarily care if you’re going to break,” Darvish said last weekend.

Column: Chicago Cubs survive tense elimination game, clearing their 1st playoff obstacle with flying colors

Darvish didn’t break Thursday. But he did enough bending before the Padres pulled him with the bases loaded and no outs in the second inning.

He gave up a leadoff single to Michael Busch in the first inning and was helped out of the inning when Freddy Fermín threw out Nico Hoerner trying to steal second. Then Darvish gave up a leadoff single to Kyle Tucker in the second and a double to Seiya Suzuki. By the time he hit Carson Kelly with a 93-mph sinker to load the bases, plans to replace him with Jeremiah Estrada were already in motion.

Jameson Taillon sets the pitching tone for the Chicago Cubs in clincher with ‘kitchen-sink approach’

“Yeah, it’s been a little bit of an uphill battle for Yu this year, starting even in the offseason into spring training and (he) was compromised,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “He was able to work his way and get back and then took him a while to get going again, but he’s a guy with a lot of experience in the league, and today was pretty crisp in the first … and the hit by pitch by Carson was a little bit of a red flag that maybe not as sharp.”

Pete Crow-Armstrong’s ensuing RBI single prompted Shildt to pull Darvish after one-plus inning, his previous shortest outing on any stage. Darvish struck out one, allowed four hits and was charged with a second run when Estrada walked Dansby Swanson to begin his two-inning stint.

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button