Yu Darvish: Good News in the Details of Import's First MLB Start

"

"You just have to feel that if Darvish can get a ground ball, get a double play, keep the damage down, get back in the dugout, take a deep breath, get this first inning under his belt everything will get a little bit easier."

"

That was Texas Rangers color announcer Tom Grieve as Yu Darvish labored through the first inning of his MLB debut Monday night in Arlington. The would not get out of the first inning so easily. Kyle Seager, the batter at the time of the quote, would line a pitch into center field for a two-RBI single. The Mariners tacked on another two runs on two walks and a single, and Darvish exited his first inning of Major League Baseball with a 36.00 ERA.

Grieve would yet be proven prophetic. Darvish stayed in the game until the sixth inning and was taken out only due to a rising pitch count. Although his final line of 5.2 innings, five runs (all earned), eight hits allowed, five strikeouts and four walks isn't overly impressive, what he did after the first inning was very solid: 4.2 innings, one run, four hits, two walks, and three strikeouts.

What sabotaged Darvish's efforts in the first? What allowed him to be effective in his final five innings? To answer the first question, I'll enlist the help of former Ranger (and many other teams as well) C.J. Nitkowski, who wrote the following at his website after the start:

"

When I watched Darvish pitch last night a few things really stuck out to me. One was that at times he was still trying to pitch like a Japanese pitcher. One of the major differences between Japan and MLB in my experience was how much more a pitcher could live inside in Japan. Generally speaking you could overpower most Japanese hitters inside and you didn't have to have great command while doing it.

I watched Darvish repeatedly attempt to throw strong live fastballs in 93-95 mph range with good movement inside to left handed hitters. The problem I saw was that the fastball would run back and catch too much of the plate, giving Seattle's hitters a chance to square it up. We call that pitch a front door two-seamer and its nasty when well executed. The down side with that pitch is if you miss over the plate it becomes very hittable.

"

Indeed, although two of the four hits Darvish allowed in the first were bloops barely reaching the outfield grass (off the bats of Ichiro and Miguel Olivo), the other two were clean line drives off the bats of left-handers Justin Smoak and Kyle Seager. As Nitkowski's analysis suggests, both came off fastballs which leaked over the heart of the plate:

Maybe it was just jitters. Darvish had not only the pressure of his first start but also the pressure of a nation on his shoulders. Whatever it was, Darvish reined in his control from the second inning onward. Darvish used the same backdoor fastballs to strike out Michael Saunders – another left-handed batter – to end the second inning, nailing the outside corner twice in three pitches:

This at-bat is illustrative of what separated Darvish's first inning from his final 4.2. Darvish avoided the middle-in pitches which doomed his first inning. Overall, Darvish managed keep his pitches low in the zone (or out of the zone) and closer to the corner in the later innings:

With his fastball command under control, Darvish was able to fully harness the power of his other pitches. One of his six curveballs and a whopping five of his 12 sliders over innings two through six drew swings and misses. Mariner hitters were unable to put even a single one of the 18 off-speed offerings into play. And he just flat-out made some hitters look silly, such as Miguel Olivo here.

Nitkowski closes his analysis of Darvish's debut with a glowing endorsement:

"

Nevertheless all signs point to a high probability of success for Yu Darvish and the Rangers. I think you'd have a hard time finding someone who knows pitching that isn't a strong buy on Yu Darvish's future in the major leagues.

"

It's difficult to find issue with Nitkowski's conclusion. Although Darvish showed vulnerability – as all pitchers do at times – he managed to adjust and use his tremendous arsenal of pitches to great effect over his final five innings. Darvish still has a long way to go before he lives up to his potential, but despite an ugly box score line, we saw much of why the Rangers were willing to pay $110 million for the privilege to call him their own as he overcame a horrible first inning to earn his team the victory.

All Pitch F/X data from Brooks Baseball.net