CHICAGO — Yu Darvish made exactly 30 starts each of his first two seasons in San Diego. But a bone spur in his elbow cut the 2023 season short. The elbow was barking again last year when a personal matter led to an extended leave of absence.
And it was the reason he spent the first three months of this season on the injured list.
After his final start of the regular season, the 39-year-old right-hander indicated he was ready to leave it all on the mound in the postseason.
“Once you go into the playoffs, it’s like you don’t necessarily care if you’re going to break,” Darvish said last weekend.
As for what that means for Darvish for the rest of a contract that runs through 2028, his focus was singular as he spoke ahead of his assignment in a win-or-go-home Game 3 on Thursday at Wrigley Field.
“Right now, I just can’t see that far away,” Darvish said through interpreter Shingo Horie. “I’m super focused on what may happen tomorrow.”
And there will be a tomorrow.
Adrián Morejón, Mason Miller and Robert Suarez took the baton from Dylan Cease on Wednesday as the quartet combined for 11 strikeouts, one walk and a hit batter in a 3-0 win.
Now, Darvish will start an elimination game against the team that sent him to the Padres in December 2020 for a package that was essentially about the big-market Cubs shedding salary and the small-market Padres improving their big-league product.
Only one of the four prospects the Padres traded away, Owen Caissie, has graduated to the majors — and he ended the season on the injured list with a concussion.
Meanwhile, Darvish has won 44 games for the Padres in the regular season and three more in the playoffs.
Last year, Darvish was brilliant in his two Division Series starts against the Dodgers. He turned in seven innings of one-run ball in a Game 2 win and gave the Padres more than a chance (6 ⅔ IP, 2 ER) to win that year’s elimination game.
It’s been a chore to get back to that level after starting the year on the injured list.
His 5.38 ERA is the worst of his career, as is his strikeout rate (8.5 per nine innings) and home run rate (1.8 per nine innings). His one true gem was the seven shutout innings he threw at the Mets on just 76 pitches. He topped 90 pitches just once in 15 starts, but truth be told, the Padres have been more interested in quality over quantity while assessing what Darvish could do ahead of their bullpen in a postseason game.
All along, the elbow has been a factor as he searched for a way — and a lower arm slot — to pitch while clearly compromised.
“Yeah, I struggled a whole lot, obviously, with the elbow situation, and it was very tough to deal with,” Darvish said. “I had a lot of great support from the organization, from our staff, which was super helpful. Right now I just feel fortunate to be here to be able to pitch.”
Still, the Padres feel just as fortunate, too.
Nick Pivetta pitched well enough to pitch Game 1. Cease got the shutout started in Game 2. With Michael King still not back to being Michael King, they can still hand the ball to a pitcher who’s made 297 regular-season starts during his 13-year career and has a 2.58 ERA in seven postseason starts since that disastrous 2017 World Series for the Dodgers against the trash-can-banging Astros.
As Padres manager Mike Shildt likes to say, “It’s Yu Darvish” — and he’s as good an option in an elimination game as anyone.
“He’s a big-game player,” King said. “Every single time he’s pitching in a big game, I’ve got the utmost confidence in what he’s about to do.”
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