A neck injury first sidelined Yu Darvish in mid-April. Then it was a groin injury that sent him to the injured list, an elbow issue that kept him on the bench and a personal matter that led to him being away from the mound for more than three months.
The silver lining in all that down time is this: Yu Darvish has just 76⅓ innings on his 38-year-old right arm this season and seemingly growing stronger as the season’s third act approaches.
“I think so,” Darvish said through interpreter Shingo Horie. “That might be the case”
The evidence is certainly there.
Darvish pushed his pitch count to 87 in turning in a second straight quality start in the Padres’ 4-2 win over the Chicago White Sox on Sunday. He allowed two runs on three hits — including two solo homers — did not walk a batter and struck out nine to become the first Japanese-born pitcher to top 2,000 strikeouts in the majors. The Padres rallied after his exit, meaning Darvish’s 202 career wins — 109 in the majors and 93 in Japan — are still one shy of matching Hiroki Kuroda for the most combined victories between the two leagues.
“Very grateful,” Darvish said after pushing that total to 2,003 to be exact. “ … It just kind of tells you how long I’ve been able to stay in the game. … That doesn’t happen by accident. I’m just really grateful for all the help and the support that I have gotten along the way.”
The march to 2000 began with more than 200 in two of his first three seasons in the majors, after he’d piled up 1,250 in seven years in Japan. Darvish lost all of 2015 to Tommy John surgery, but topped 200 again in 2017 and 2019, was one shy of that marker in his first year in San Diego in 2021 and three shy in 2022.
Elbow trouble sidelined Darvish at the end of a down season in 2023 (4.56 ERA) and the road back to contributing to the Padres rotation as he had during their push to the NLCS in 2022 has been littered with ailments and a personal matter that he has not discussed publicly.
But Darvish is on his way back, with his ERA at 3.15 in four starts since returning to the rotation on Sept. 4, all without a traditional minor league rehab assignment build-up.
Over that stretch (20 IP), Darvish has struck out 21, walked four and allowed 17 hits. More importantly, after throwing six shutout innings at the Astros on Monday, he pitched into the seventh inning on Sunday, recording a pop-out to start the frame before Adrián Morejón was called on to finish the inning.
“It’s really important for me to … get out there in the seventh inning,” Darvish said. “ … I still had a couple until reaching 100 so and I had the energy, too, so I really wanted to go out there. And at the end, they let me so, very grateful, happy for that.”
Darvish added: “It does feel good to be back here and to be able to perform out there as well. You know, I missed a chunk of time, obviously important time of the season. And once you come back here, you really want to go out and perform.”