The Rangers on Saturday night topped the Pirates by a score of 5-2 (box score), and the major subplot was that the game occasioned Yu Darvish’s first major-league start of 2016. Here’s how that went …
Darvish, of course, returned to a big-league mound after undergoing Tommy John surgery in March of 2015. Saturday night marked his first start with the Rangers since Aug. 9, 2014, and as you can see it went quite well. Prior to this, Darvish looked quite strong in five minor-league rehab starts, but doing it against the best hitters in the world is something else altogether.
Speaking of doing it against the best hitters in the world …
Of Darvish’s 81 pitches on the night, 51 went for strikes. As for his velocity, it was impressive …
(Chart via Brooks Baseball)
Per the GameDay algorithm, Darvish averaged 95.2 mph with his four-seamer and topped out at 99.1(!). For what it’s worth, Darvish hasn’t averaged 95 or better with his fastball since his rookie MLB season of 2009. And as Andrew McCutchen will attest, the breaking ball was working, too …
And here’s Texas catcher Bobby Wilson on Darvish’s Saturday stuff (via AP) …
”In warmups, he didn’t really let it go. And then warmups in the first inning, he didn’t really let it go. Then the first couple of hitters, he started letting it go and that ball jumped on me quick. The sinkers that he threw, there was a couple I’m just happy I got a glove on because they were that firm and that nasty.”
As for the opposition, Jung Ho Kang wasn’t in the lineup on Saturday, but the Pirates are still one of the stronger offensive teams in the majors (only the Red Sox have a higher Weighted On-Base Average this season). Yet Darvish tamed them. Command is typically the last thing to return to pitcher who’s undergone reconstructive elbow surgery, but if his start against Pittsburgh is any guide, the Texas ace is ahead of schedule.
So Darvish will fortify a Ranger rotation that leads the AL in starters’ ERA and ranks 10th in starters’ FIP. It’s that latter ranking that may have portended regression. The return of one of the elite bat-missers in the game today, though, may keep things humming in Texas.
