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Yu Darvish Debut

March 9, 2012 by · Comments Off on Yu Darvish Debut 

Yu Darvish Debut, Yu Darvish, the Texas Rangers’ much ballyhooed Japanese pitching import, made his debut in Peoria, Arizona, on Wednesday afternoon against the San Diego Padres.  The hype was huge, and Darvish did not disappoint.

Over two innings, Darvish threw 36 pitches, 26 of which were strikes. Darvish’s repertoire included eight distinct pitches, including two different fastballs as well as two types of curveballs.

Darvish threw a four-seam fastball that maxed out at 95 MPH. A 12-to-6 curveball that registered at 66 MPH, as well as a much harder “slurve” type of curveball that hit 80 MPH. His two-seam fastball hovered in the low 90s and his splitter sat at 88 MPH.

Darvish faced a total of eight batters—four in the first, and four in the second inning—and struck out three, surrendered just two hits, both of which were to left-handed hitters.

Against Darvish, only one ball was struck soundly with any carry. Will Venable nailed a 2-2 fastball leading off the second inning into the ridiculously high “batter’s eye” in deep right-center field.

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