After San Diego Padres fans expressed concern over Yu Darvish, he came back around and made history. On Wednesday, Darvish achieved his 204th career win in both MLB and the Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan, per Bob Nightengale of USA Today.
As a result, he is the winningest Japanese-born pitcher to play in both leagues. The last pitcher to hold that title was Koji Uehara.
Darvish completed a shutout win over the Mets, 5-0. In the process, he gave up no earned runs along with seven strikeouts in seven innings pitched. As of now, Darvish is 1-3 on the year with a 6.46 ERA and 18 strikeouts.
He is coming off a recent elbow injury that sidelined him for much of the season. The Padres are now 60-49 and are 3.5 games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League West.
Darvish is a native of Osaka, Japan. While there, he played for the Nippon Ham Fighters from 2005 to 2011. Along the way, he achieved a 93-38 record with a 1.99 ERA. Furthermore, Darvish won the Pacific League MVP in 2007 and 2009.
Additionally, he helped lead the Fighters to a championship in 2007. Altogether, Darvish accumulated 1,250 strikeouts.
Yu Darvish's journey from Japan to the Padres
Darvish joined MLB in 2012 as part of the Texas Rangers. He went on to pitch for the Rangers until 2017. After a one-year stint with the Dodgers, Darvish made his way to the Chicago Cubs in 2018 and pitched for them until 2020.
He has been with the Padres since 2021. Since then, Darvish has established himself as one of the most consistent staff aces. In 2024, he went 6-0 since coming back from injury as the Padres made the playoffs.
Darvish started in Game 5 of the NLDS against the Los Angeles Dodgers. He also achieved a feat not seen since 1893 by pitching five innings while giving up two or fewer hits.
