Veteran San Diego Padres right-hander Yu Darvish turned in another dominant outing on Sunday night in his team's 9-1 win over the Atlanta Braves.
Darvish worked seven innings, permitted no runs on two hits and struck out nine against one walk. The effort lowered his ERA for the season to 2.08. The 37-year-old has been on a roll as of late, as he's now twirled 25 consecutive scoreless innings. As Elias notes, that give Darvish the longest scoreless-inning streak of any Japanese-born pitcher.
He hasn't permitted a run since he faced the Dodgers on April 14. Sarah Langs adds this:
Yu Darvish has had 4 straight scoreless starts for the first time in his MLB career
— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) May 20, 2024
only 1 other pitcher since 1901 has had 4 straight at age 37+: 2005 Kenny Rogers at age 40
he’s the first Padres pitcher with 4 straight scoreless starts of at least 5 IP
As is customary for Darvish, he mixed and matched an impossibly full repertoire of eight pitches – while leaning mostly on his slider-fastball combo – in baffling one of the best lineups in baseball. It's that deep pitch mix, plus his velocity retention that's allowed him to continue thriving despite inching towards 40 years old.
Because Darvish picked up the win on Sunday, he accomplished another bit of history. Darvish now has 107 career wins in MLB to go with the 93 he amassed in NPB, Japan's highest league, before he made the leap. Those 200 combined wins puts Darvish in elite company:
Yu Darvish joins elite company with his 200th career win -- MLB & NPB combined!
— MLB (@MLB) May 20, 2024
Only Hiroki Kuroda (203) and Hideo Nomo (201) have more combined wins among Japanese-born pitchers. pic.twitter.com/QM09EDRPSr
Given Darvish's excellence to date in 2024, he figures to continue adding to that tally.
The win also pulled Darvish's Padres back to .500 for the season at 24-24. They're presently occupying the third wild-card position in the National League.
