The San Diego Padres’ Yu Darvish was cruising through the Los Angeles Dodgers’ lineup when Cody Bellinger came to the plate in the fifth inning. The slugger went down swinging on four pitches for Yu’s 3,000th career strikeout in his professional career.
“I had totally forgotten about it and someone told me in the game,” Darvish said through a translator after posing for a quick photograph holding the special ball at his locker after the 7-1 victory on Friday night.
Darvish combined with two relievers on a four-hitter, and Manny Machado and Brandon Drury hit two-run homers in the third inning to propel the Padres.
Photo: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA Today
“It’s a terrific season for him, just seems like he gets better as the season goes along,” Padres manager Bob Melvin said of Darvish. “It’s his goal every game is try to get at least seven innings in. He’s got multiple pitches, he can lean on different pitches at certain times.”
Darvish (12-7) struck out nine to reach 3,003. He had 1,250 in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball league and has 1,753 in the MLB since coming to the US in 2012. The right-hander walked two in seven innings.
“That’s certainly a moment to pause,” Melvin said. “Another feather in his cap in an illustrious career and there are going to be many more.”
The meaning of 3,000 strikeouts was not lost on Darvish.
“Longevity,” he said. “Just being able to stay in the game that long. I’m grateful.”
Darvish trails fellow countryman Hideo Nomo, who had 3,122 career strikeouts playing in Nippon Professional Baseball before becoming a star with the Dodgers in the mid-1990s.
Darvish said Nomo was on “a different level” than him.
“It comes down to being able to have good off-speed pitches,” he said. “You need spin to be able to get swings and misses.”
Jurickson Profar added a three-run blast with two outs in the sixth off reliever Heath Hembree in the second-place Padres’ fourth straight victory.
“We know we have to win almost every game,” Profar said. “We know where we want to go. To show it like tonight against a really good team gives us confidence.”
In other games on Friday, it was:
‧Cardinals 8, Cubs 0
‧Giants 13, Phillies 1
‧Reds 3, Rockies 2
‧Diamondbacks 2, Brewers 1
‧White Sox 4, Twins 3
‧Mariners 6, Guardians 1
‧Blue Jays 4, Pirates 0
‧Red Sox 9, Rangers 1
‧Orioles 5, Athletics 2
‧Tigers 5, Royals 4
‧Rays 9, Yankees 0
‧Braves 8, Marlins 1
‧Mets 7, Nationals 3
‧Astros 4, Angels 2
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