Running Diary of Yu Darvish’s 2nd Spring Training Start

Published: 13^th Mar 12 5:17 pm

Peter Ellwood
peterellwood

RANT It!

Mark J. Rebilas-US PRESSWIRE

Yu Darvish made his second start of Spring Training for the Texas Rangers. I am fascinated by Darvish and what he could do this year for the Rangers, so I chose to write a live journal as I watched his start on the MLB Network.

The start took place against the Cleveland Indians in Goodyear, Arizona.

Pregame:

2:58pm - MLB Network has a countdown running to the start of Darvish’s start. Yumanity is sweeping the nation.

3:00pm - Ahmed Fareed and Billy Ripken killing time until Darvish takes the mound. Billy Ripken looks like he should be the bad guy in a Home Alone spinoff, or be Mr. Penguin in a Batman remake. While I’m fairly certain Fareed has his chair on the “Rosenthal” height setting.

3:02pm – Those were jokes at the expense of Ripken and Fareed. I’m not sure either one landed. But you get the idea. Ripken is bald and has sunken eyes. Fareed is short. This entry really killed the humor of the previous entry.

Top of the 1st inning:

3:04pm – The Rangers lineup features Craig Gentry, David Murphy, Mitch Moreland, and Yorvit Torrealba. I use the word “features” loosely. The more interesting entries in the lineup are Mike Olt and Engel Beltre.

3:05pm - Gentry tries to bunt for a base hit, and is thrown out. My wife comments that he looks slower than usual. I agree. My wife is observant, and is watching a meaningless Spring Training game with me.

3:07pm - David Murphy pops out to end the inning. That’s two Darvish starts in a row that the Rangers have gone quickly in order in the top of the 1st. Very gracious of the offense.

Bottom of the 1st inning:

3:10pm - Darvish begins by walking Michael Brantley on 5 pitches, all fastballs. He made Brantley look foolish on a 2-0 fastball as it dropped out of the zone and Brantley waved at it feebly.

3:12pm – Brantley is thrown out trying to steal 2nd base by Torrealba. A perfect throw on a quick release. Meanwhile, Darvish missed to fall behind 2-0 to Asdrubel Cabrera on another fastball.

3:13pm – Darvish walks Cabrera on 5 pitches as well. Most fastballs missed running away from the left-handed hitters, with a couple of over-corrections that came inside to lefties.

3:15pm – Torrealba guns down Cabrera trying to steal 2nd base. Clearly, Darvish felt Torrealba needed the work and purposefully walked the first two batters to give him the opportunity.

3:16pm – On a 3-2 pitch, Darvish strikes out Shin-Soo Choo. Darvish continued to struggle with fastball command, but got two different types of curves over for a strike, including the payoff pitch.

Top of the 2nd inning:

3:21pm – Torrealba continues his All-Star performance with a weak single poked to right field. Chip Caray would say it was fisted, but no, it was poked.

3:22pm – First pitch swinging, Engel Beltre rips an inside fastball for a triple, scoring Torrealba. Beltre’s swing looked very smooth, reminiscent of Gary Matthews Jr. during that one season where he was really good. You know, the one right before the Angels gave him a 4 year, $40 million deal that he never lived up to.

Bottom of the 2nd inning:

3:27pm – Darvish got a couple of fastballs over for strikes to Hafner, though they appeared to be of the “just get them over” variety. Hafner pops out on Darvish’s sharper curveball, the 78-mph, not the 65-mph variety.

3:28pm – Darvish started Jose Lopez with two sliders that were downright sexy. Then Lopez hit a third slider off the end of the at-bat weakly into center field to bust up the no-hitter. That’s baseball, I guess.

3:30pm – Darvish appears to be working on locating his fastball in this inning. He is throwing them for strikes, but they are less lively than in the 1st inning. He is struggling to combine the movement and accuracy so far today.

3:31pm – Fred Lewis just saw a 63-mph curveball, followed by an 88-mph fastball. The fastball looked 96-mph after piggybacking on the curve. That’s a neat trick. He consequently struck out on a 76-mph curveball that didn’t even reach the plate, and looked terrible doing it. Fred Lewis doesn’t want to hit against Yu Darvish anymore.

Top of the 3rd inning:

3:35pm – Mike Olt just bombed a triple to center field. If that is hit at the Ballpark in Arlington it is caught by a chubby kid in a red shirt. Hey, look, the two guys I said were the most interesting in today’s lineup have tripled.

3:37pm – Solarte golfed a home run down the right field line, scoring Gentry who had singled in Olt. The Solarte home run looked like the Ben Francisco home run from 2011 that went out of the park in Cincinnati. Except Solarte’s was about 100 feet shorter.

3:40pm – It strikes me that even though the Rangers have just scored three runs and are up 4-0, I care very little about anything but watching Darvish pitch.

3:49pm – It’s now 7-0 Rangers. They did a lot more hitting off of the Indians Josh Tomlin, including a double from Yorvit Torrealba, who already has game MVP honors wrapped up and is just showing off.

Bottom of the 3rd inning:

3:53pm – Darvish appears to have little interest in using his vast array of pitches in what you would call a normal sequence; throwing any pitch at any time in the count. Even though he doesn’t have his best stuff today, the variety of pitches thrown is keeping hitters guessing and off-balance.

3:54pm – A line drive is smoked to center field, and Gentry made one of the most unathletic dives I’ve ever seen from him, and landed awkwardly on his left wrist and shoulder. Word will come later this was a mild sprain in his left wrist.

3:55pm - I’m now reconsidering my abject dislike of Julio Borbon playing center field for the Rangers this year.

3:58pm – Darvish’s command continues to be off. He looks to be pitching underneath the ball without a great feel for the correct arm slot or release point. He is obviously trying to make corrections on the fly, thus far unsuccessfully.

3:59pm – Even with the struggles, there has only been one hard hit ball by the Indians all game. The surrendered walks are the bigger issue.

4:00pm – Speaking of walks, after two more of them the bases are loaded with nobody out. Darvish has now passed his 50-pitch limit.

4:05pm – Darvish gives up a single and then gets a ground ball for a double play. The book is essentially written on this game, and I’m losing steam for this live blog.

4:08pm – The inning finally ends on a deep fly ball to center field, and so concludes Darvish’s start.

The final line for Darvish is 3 IP, 2 ER, 3 H, 4 BB, 3 K, on 61 pitches (of which only 29 were strikes). Not nearly as impressive as his first outing. The movement and variation was still there on his pitches, but he had no command in the strike zone. He soldiered on and will have plenty of time to make adjustments. It will be interesting to see how he responds his next time out, as it will be key for him to be able to rebound quickly from bad outings.

In closing, here are some .GIFs of today’s action from Baseball Time in Arlington.