When the Los Angeles Dodgers acquired Yu Darvish from the Texas Rangers with seconds to spare before the non-waiver trade deadline, it solely was with an eye on October. The Dodgers at the time had the best record in baseball and boasted one of the top starting rotations.
But Darvish represented a right-handed complement to Clayton Kershaw not seen since Zack Greinke signed a record deal with the Arizona Diamondbacks. Darvish got off to a strong start with the Dodgers, then hit a rough patch, but rebounded behind refined mechanics and a return to his pre-Tommy John surgery arm slot.
His first postseason start for Los Angeles was what the club envisioned: five innings with just one run allowed on two hits, and seven strikeouts against one walk. Darvish earned the win and the Dodgers swept the Arizona Diamondbacks in the National League Division Series.
Then against the Cubs in Game 3 of the NL Championship Series, he permitted just one run on six hits, again struck out seven, and went 6.1 innings. Perhaps most notably, both outings came on the road.
But the right-hander faltered in the World Series. There was some thought he suffered the effects of purportedly different baseballs, but following a Game 7 loss, Carlos Beltran suggested that the Houston Astros picked up on Darvish tipping pitches.
Now six weeks later, an Astros player explained to Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated what that entailed:
According to a Houston player, the Astros often knew what Darvish was about to throw by the way he brought the ball into his glove in the set position. (Darvish pitches exclusively out of the stretch.) The player said it worked like this: Darvish holds the ball at his side when he gets the sign from the catcher. Whether he re-grips or not as he brings the ball into his glove was the tip-off whether he was going to throw a slider/cutter or a fastball.
“We knew the first time we faced him [in Game 3],” the player said. “The next time [in Game 7] it was mostly the same, but then it was more about just having a great game plan going in. We knew he was going to try to go back to his slider to find it. We had a great approach.”
Darvish went managed to record just five outs in both of his outings against the Astros. He suffered the losses in Games 3 and 7, allowing a combined nine runs (eight earned) on nine hits, including two home runs.
To his credit, Darvish did not make any excuses for his subpar performances, and instead expressed a hope to return to that stage — with the Dodgers, no less — to atone for them.
