This is a site about Pro Yakyu (Japanese Baseball), not about who the next player to go over to MLB is. It's a community of Pro Yakyu fans who have come together to share their knowledge and opinions with the world. It's a place to follow teams and individuals playing baseball in Japan (and Asia), and to learn about Japanese (and Asian) culture through baseball.
It is my sincere hope that once you learn a bit about what we're about here that you will join the community of contributors.
Michael Westbay
(aka westbaystars)
Founder
The game didn't start off Darvish's way, allowing the first Kumamoto batter to reach base on an error by his third baseman. But he got the next batter to pop out to third and struck out the next two. He walked batters in the second and fifth innings, but that was the extent of Kumamoto batters to reach base. In all, Darvish struck out 12 batters, including all three batters he faced in the fourth inning.
Besides a 147 kph fastball (76 thrown), Darvish threw strikes with his sinker (14), curve (12), and slider (27) for a total of 129 pitches. He struck out 6 looking, 6 swinging, got 10 infield ground outs, 3 infield flies, and only two outs were recorded in the outfield as flies.
When Darvish goes high in the draft next November, this son of an Iranian father and Japanese mother will be considered Japanese.