The San Diego Padres' pitching rotation is looking terrifying this early in the season. New acquisition Sean Manaea and returning ace Yu Darvish have been absolutely phenomenal to start the year. Their performances on the mound have helped the team stay over .500 11 games into the season.
After a stinker against in-state rivals San Francisco, Yu Darvish went back to his strikeout-happy ways against the Atlanta Braves. Darvish went for just under 7 innings, garnering eight strikeouts while allowing just one earned run. The Padres' fourth K was actually a record-breaker, as he became the fastest pitcher to reach 1,600 strikeouts in MLB history. (via Elias Sports Bureau)
What's even more impressive about the Padres star's achievement is the speed in which he did it. Darvish got his 1,600 Ks in just a little over 1,300 innings pitched. Among other members of that list, no one has done it in under 1,350 innings. Talk about a strikeout machine.
The Padres needed every bit of Darvish's run prevention against the Braves in their game. After rocking the defending champions with a whopping 12 runs in the first game of the series thanks to Manny Machado's heroics, the team struggled to buy a run in the next four games. They were held to just 2 runs in their next three games, as the Braves hitters started to find their stride.
Luckily for the Padres, Darvish was there to extinguish Atlanta's hit-happy ways. Because of that, the Padres were able to survive the final game with a 2-1 score, evening up their series against the Braves. If they want to to compete seriously this season, their batting order will need to find more consistency in racking up runs.
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