Darvish taken out after giving up a hit with one out til a perfect game

[notoriousgod71]

Clearly he couldn't finish. I am glad 100 pitches is the magic number til death.

[gil4]

Clearly he couldn't finish. I am glad 100 pitches is the magic number til death.

 

It's his first start of the season. With all of the hand-wringing over Santana's injury right now, I bet it was tough to even let him go out for the ninth.

[sorney]

Clearly he couldn't finish. I am glad 100 pitches is the magic number til death.

 

Probably more of a mental thing than a physical thing. Yu was probably super focused on getting the perfect game as the game wore on, that there is a natural let down after giving up the hit being so close. Probably tough to re-focus, and probably a way to have Yu acknowledged by the crowd. I'm betting it wasn't pitch count related

[Brock Beauchamp]

It's his first start of the season. With all of the hand-wringing over Santana's injury right now, I bet it was tough to even let him go out for the ninth.

 

It was a perfect game, not a no-hitter. Chances are the manager would have to cram Darvish into a locker with armed guards to keep him out of that game.

[Seth Stohs]

He was at 120 pitches, in his first outing of the regular season. It was absolutely the right thing to do.

[Otto von Ballpark]

He was at 120 pitches, in his first outing of the regular season. It was absolutely the right thing to do.

For the record, Darvish was at 111 pitches, not 120.

[Otto von Ballpark]

I'm torn on this. First outing of the year, up 7 runs, yeah, it doesn't seem like it's worth it to push him.

 

But on the other hand, is it really "pushing" him? 111 pitches yesterday and he was absolutely cruising -- not a ball hit out of the infield since the 5th inning. Last year, he averaged 109 pitches and 6.6 innings per start -- this one was pretty clearly less stressful than his average outing last year. And in his first start of 2012 (MLB debut), Darvish went 110 pitches but couldn't finish the 6th -- that was almost certainly a more stressful outing than this one, yet he was "allowed" to throw almost the exact same number of pitches in both. (Interesting that despite being somewhat of a workhorse on a team that likes those kinds of pitchers, Darvish did not throw any complete games last year.)

 

The first start of the year thing is the only thing that would give me pause. Although if I were running the show, I'd probably ramp up my starters a bit more in advance of their season debut (memories back to 2004 when the Indians pulled Sabathia after 7 shutout innings leading 4-0, only to see the Twins rally to win against the Cleveland bullpen).

[ThePuck]

Would have been nice to see the perfect game...and a record for Ks in a perfect game..

[IdahoPilgrim]

I'm not sure what the big deal is. He was facing the Houston Astros.

 

If he had pitched a perfect game, would it have an asterisk in the record book?

[Riverbrian]

Personally I'm Bummed... I have Darvish on one of my fantasy teams and my opponent has Kershaw...

 

Kershaw threw a complete game and that gave my opponent 1 of those puppies and getting a complete game is hard to do in the early season. I was one pitch from tying up that catagory and now it's probably lost.

 

That aside... I was watching the game... Darvish threw nothing but fastball strikes in the ninth... He was probably instructed to end it quick with a 7-0 lead. You didn't see that slider that was killing Astro's all game long once in the ninth... It was fastball after fastball and they were up. He wasn't trying to nibble as far as I can tell.

 

Darvish had a much different approach in the 9th compared to the other 8 innings.

[Mike Sixel]

I would have taken him out. What is the upside of leaving him in? There is none.

[Joe A. Preusser]

He was at 120 pitches, in his first outing of the regular season. It was absolutely the right thing to do.

 

This will be an unpopular position, but I think he should never have been allowed to pitch into the ninth. Perfect games are amazing feats to see, but is this guy's season or career worth it when his arm is tuned up for about 80-90 pitches tops? As for pulling him with one out left, the ONLY reason he was in there was to get that perfect game. When that was lost why on earth would any manager push his arm even further past it's limits?

[ashbury]

Perfect games are amazing feats to see, but is this guy's season or career worth it when his arm is tuned up for about 80-90 pitches tops?

 

From the standpoint of the team investing in the arm, you are probably right. From the perspective of the athlete, I suspect most would say they would accept *some* risk (which they will immediately discount to about zero) of permanent injury in exchange for a chance to finish the last inning of a perfecto. A few, the non-HOFers probably, might even say yes to a 100% certain end of the career in exchange for a 100% certain completion of their historic game. I think the manager has to balance these views, since the owner signs his paycheck but he has to have the respect of this players too.