San Diego Padres pitcher Yu Darvish reaches 200 combined MLB and NPB wins
Yu Darvish became the third Japanese-born pitcher to win 200 games across Major League Baseball (MLB) and Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) when the San Diego Padres beat the Atlanta Braves 9-1 on Sunday.
Darvish had nine strikeouts and gave up just two hits and one walk in seven scoreless innings for his 107th MLB win. In addition to his 93 NPB wins for the Nippon Ham Fighters from 2005-11, that took his total across the two leagues to 200.
Hiroki Kuroda (203) and Hideo Nomo (201) were the previous two Japanese-born pitchers to reach the 200 mark, and Darvish has every chance of overtaking them with the regular season ending in late September. He overtook Nomo for most MLB strikeouts by a Japanese-born pitcher last August with his total now at 1,975.
The 37-year-old made another piece of history on Sunday as he became the second-oldest MLB pitcher to have scoreless starts of at least seven innings allowing two hits or fewer in consecutive games. The oldest was Hall of Famer Cy Young back in 1905. Darvish has also not given up a run in 25 innings.
Since making his MLB debut for the Texas Rangers in 2012, he has made five MLB All-Star Game appearances and was the National League wins leader in 2020. Darvish has had to cope with adversity in his career as well – he was blamed by Los Angeles Dodgers fans for losing the 2017 World Series to the Houston Astros and chose not to re-sign for the team.
Born in Osaka to an Iranian father and Japanese mother – who met at college in the United States – Darvish represented Japan at the Beijing 2008 Olympics. After struggling in his opening start against Cuba, he played a peripheral role as Japan took fourth place. He enjoyed more success at the 2009 World Baseball Classic, closing out victory in the final over South Korea at Dodger Stadium.
Along with Shohei Ohtani, Darvish was part of Japan’s World Baseball Classic triumph on home soil last year. While his game time was limited, the veteran acted as a mentor to the younger members of the squad and helped instil a calmness which contributed to their come-from-behind victories in the semi-finals and final – over Mexico and the United States respectively – as Samurai Japan clinched a third title.
Despite his advancing years, Darvish is on course for a career-best season with four wins in five games and an earned run average of 2.08.
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