Puig knocks Sox off
Darvish has the benefit of strong bullpen with Dodgers
Yu Darvish gained more than a few places in the standings when he was traded to the Dodgers.
Over the last couple of weeks, the Japanese right-hander has spoken of what it’s like to be on a team with a lineup as potent as the Dodgers’. Or how he looked forward to pitching in a home stadium where humidity and strange-blowing winds wouldn’t be factors.
He neglected to mention another benefit of his midseason move from the Texas Rangers: The formidable bullpen he now has behind him.
Six days after a five-inning start, Darvish pitched six innings in his first home game in a Dodgers uniform.
Provided his departure wasn’t
the result of an injury — he threw a handful of warmup pitches in the seventh inning in what looked like an effort to buy time for Brandon Morrow to warm up — the timing of his removal from the Dodgers’ 5-4, walkoff victory over the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday was a reminder of how much his circumstances have changed. The Dodgers aren’t asking nearly as much from him as the Rangers did.
A fourth-place team with a slumping offense and mediocre group of relievers, the Rangers couldn’t win without Darvish shouldering the workload of a traditional frontline starter. Here, there is no such necessity. Darvish can pitch five or six innings and hand the baseball over the National League’s top bullpen.
Sidelined Clayton Kershaw is the only pitcher on the team expected to pitch into the seventh or eighth innings of his starts and that’s largely because it’s what Kershaw expects of himself. The rotation includes several other decorated starters, from Alex Wood to Rich Hill to HyunJin Ryu. If any of them pitch six innings, that’s enough. Anything more is considered a bonus.
This was always the plan. As far back as spring training, manager Dave Roberts was saying he didn’t expect any pitcher other than Kershaw to reach the 200inning mark.
They don’t have to be great. They only have to be good. This now applies to Darvish too.
If you’re of a certain age, this isn’t the kind of baseball you grew up watching. It’s certainly not the kind of baseball your father grew up watching.
Complaints of how the game has changed miss the point. This is effective. And for a franchise that hasn’t won a championship in nearly three decades, isn’t that what counts?
There’s a certain peace of mind that comes with playing on a team with the talent and depth of the Dodgers, and if it has allowed other players to flourish, it figures to have the same kind of effect on Darvish too.
Darvish’s first pitch of the game Wednesday was launched by Leury Garcia for a home run. The Dodgers weren’t down for long, as Logan Forsythe doubled and later scored on a wild pitch in the second inning.
Darvish served up another solo home run in the fourth inning, this one to Nicky Delmonico. Again, the Dodgers promptly erased the deficit, as Enrique Hernandez hit a solo home run in the bottom half of the inning.
Davish gave up a home run in the sixth inning, as Jose Abreu sent one of his fastballs halfway up the left-field pavilion.
With the Dodgers down 3-2, Darvish passed the baseball to a bullpen with an NL-best 3.01 earned-run average.
This almost certainly wasn’t the home debut Darvish envisioned. But for these Dodgers, it was enough. The Dodgers scored three runs in a stadium-rocking ninth inning and won 5-4.
Darvish had pitched in Dodger Stadium only twice. That was in the 2009 World Baseball Classic, where he was Japan’s closer. Darvish pitched the final inning of a victory over the United States in the semifinals. He pitched two innings and was the winning pitcher of the final, a 10-inning victory over South Korea.
Darvish struck out Keun-Woo Jeong for the final out of the championship game, a moment that continues to be cherished in his homeland to this day. Darvish didn’t relieve any of that glory Friday night. He didn’t have to.