Yu Darvish throws a 4-strike walk, a breakdown
What Happened
Yu Darvish of the San Diego Padres is in the midst of a dominant pitching performance, having not allowed a single baserunner so far in the game. As he winds up to deliver another pitch, Darvish does his signature "three-finger wiggle" on the mound, a tell that he is likely going to throw a cutter. The batter swings and misses, clearly fooled by the movement on Darvish's pitch. Darvish steps back on the mound, and the home plate umpire calls the next pitch a ball, much to the confusion of everyone watching. The umpire then steps forward and rings up the batter, despite the pitch appearing to be in the strike zone. Darvish shakes his head, perplexed by the umpire's decision, and prepares to throw his next pitch. On the very next offering, Darvish misses the strike zone again, bringing the count to 3-0. Darvish shakes off the catcher's sign and tries a different location, but the umpire calls that pitch a ball as well. The Padres' dugout erupts, with manager Bob Melvin coming out to argue the questionable strike zone. Darvish, unfazed, steps back on the mound and delivers another pitch, this time on the inner half of the plate. However, the umpire once again rules it a ball, much to the dismay of the Padres and their fans. Darvish, frustrated, shakes his head and prepares for the 3-2 pitch. The next offering from Darvish appears to catch the strike zone, but the umpire emphatically calls it a ball, resulting in a four-pitch walk. Darvish and the Padres' coaching staff are visibly perplexed by the umpire's strike zone, with the usually composed Darvish showing rare signs of frustration. Despite the bizarre sequence, Darvish remains focused and manages to escape the inning without further damage. His dominant performance has kept the Padres in the game, and he continues to show why he is one of the most formidable pitchers in Major League Baseball.
Full Transcript
Click timestamps to jump to that momentyou Darvish is having a great season and
in this game perfect so far hasn't
allowed one base runner that ball is low
and we all agree and then the little
three finger wiggle I don't know what
that is I think it's a cutter a little
three finger wiggle for Darvish I like
his wind-ups got like two parts and
that's a nice pitch swings over it um
brings him up look how far away the
batter is when the UMP brings him up I
wonder what the record is for the
umpire's still ringing you up the
farthest away from the plate has anyone
ever struck out like ran away and the
UMP brings him up he's ringing up a
ghost anyway gets back in the box and
Darby's gonna look at the catcher again
and say uh the three finger wiggle again
okay make a pitch make a pitch and uh
what
okay fastball inside no three finger
wiggle again yeah Darby's like yeah I'm
gonna prove to this guy like he should
call it attacks another quadrant
doesn't get it there either I was like
what the hell's going on that's ball
three
umpire scaring everyone
intense dark
troubled three finger wiggle again on
the three one okay let's try a different
side of the plate see if we can get the
call there we'll go inside
you gotta be me
what
umpire
really thinking Am I Wrong am I gonna
beat you up
manager's like what does he got to do
look at this pitch the first one I mean
that is
a strike it's a strike I'm guessing
he maybe has it high but look at the
batter's eyes like you know like when
it's crossing the plate it's there
that's a Str that's pretty egregious
this this is the one that maybe it is a
ball and it's not framed really well and
I think the Padres catchers aren't
really great defensively free framing
because it's caught way out of the zone
so I I understand this one but all of
the all of the metrics in the baseball
Savant stuff say that it did clip The
Zone it's knee-high
over the it's over the plate in knee
high before it keeps going and it looks
like it could be but it's not presented
well and then the third one
what are we doing here he's saying
that's inside I mean it's over the plate
and it's got the height
I don't know what's going on Darvish
this led to like a long inning for him
but then he got out of it because he's
good and he's having a phenomenal season
you take away one blow up start in the
beginning I think he's got like a 270
era
that's a tough walk