Yu Darvish had his most dominant start with the Cubs on Thursday, striking out 14 batters in six innings of shutout baseball. He allowed a two-out single in the third inning and a leadoff triple in the sixth, plus two walks. But that was all, as Darvish shut down the Padres, leading the Cubs to a 4-1 win.
And guess what his most dominant pitch was? His new knuckle curve that Darvish barely learned from Craig Kimbrel. Darvish threw 14 knuckle curve balls against the Padres and seven of those ended with a strikeout, four on swinging strikes and three were called strike three.
It was simply another incredible start by Darvish, who had great command and control of seven different pitches! And you can argue he was throwing 8-9 different pitches because of the velocity range on a couple of them.
But it’s wild that Darvish recently learned a new pitch and he’s already dominating with it. Oh and you know, his other stuff is pretty good too.
