Texas Rangers’ Yu Darvish Makes Impressive League Debut

For the league debut at Cactus League game, Yu Darvish, threw 36 pitches, 26 for strikes, gave up two hits and no runs with four-seam fastball at 93 mph. For the Texas Rangers and more than 150 reporters, it was impressive. 

Texas Rangers acquired Japan's best pitcher Yu Darvish this winter at more than $107 million. The Rangers paid $51 million to his former team for exclusive negotiating rights and will pay Darvish $60 million for six years of contract. 

"This guy really, really wants to excel,'' Rangers pitching coach Mike Maddux said. "That's refreshing. He comes here having had a lot of success, and he's starting from square one here. He has high expectations for himself. We just expect him to keep us in the game.''

The 6-foot-5 newcomer threw out of the stretch the entire outing on Wednesday, and later said in an interview that the game lacked intensity because it's spring training. 

"I've got to check the rule book, but I don't think there's an infraction for pitching out of the stretch,"  pitching coach Maddux said. "The biggest pitches you make in the game come out of the stretch, so if you want to hone that craft, by all means.

Darvish said he was happy to play with big league hitters, he was happy about the four-seam fast-ball, his sharp slider, and, most of all, by his defense.

"Yes, I was kind of waiting for that question if anyone was going to ask me about my fielding today," he said through an interpreter. "But we've been working on that and I thought it went well. I was happy with that."

"My teammates teased me before the game, saying I must be nervous," Darvish recounted, cameras clicking away. "I said, 'No, I'm not,' and they said, 'Yeah, you are.' "

"I asked him before the game if he was nervous and he said no," catcher Yorvit Torrealba said. "He looked good out there. He looked like he was pumped to go out there, I saw confidence. When Venable hit a double, he knew right away. It was a fastball, we tried to go inside. He left it right in the middle and he told me right away.

"Communication was good. I basically talked to him before the game and he basically said whatever I put down he's going to throw it and he wanted to use all his pitches," Torrealba said.

Darvish is expected to pitch again for Rangers against the Cleveland Indians on March 13.