Chicago Cubs starter Yu Darvish was supposed to take the ball in the rubber match of Chicago's series against the Milwaukee Brewers on Sunday afternoon, but he was a late scratch due to forearm tightness.
Naturally, this would seem to be cause for concern amongst Cubs fans. Darvish has already undergone multiple elbow surgeries in his career, including during this past offseason. Cubs reliever Brandon Morrow has also suffered from forearm issues in recent years and was just recently shut down for the remainder of the year following a failure to progress through his rehab program.
However, Cubs manager Joe Maddon told ESPN's Jesse Rogers that the team fully expects Darvish to be ready for his next scheduled start on Saturday in Milwaukee:
“Just like a precautionary thing,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. “I mean the guy's pitching a lot this year compared to what he did last year. We're really jumping his innings so we want to be a little bit proactive with this thing. We anticipate playing a lot longer than just the rest of this month.”
Darvish has been one of Chicago's best pitchers in the second half, making a remarkable turnaround from his first few starts of the season. Darvish has a 2.93 ERA and 11.7 K/9 since the All-Star break, but the more impressive number is his 0.795 WHIP split.
The 33-year-old has walked just three batters in his last nine starts, which is quite the contrast from the first two months of the season.
Chicago trailed the St. Louis Cardinals by 2 1/2 games entering play on Sunday. Given how well Yu Darvish has been pitching, the Cubs need him to be fully healthy for the stretch run.
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