Yu Darvish busted out a 64-mph curveball and hit a double all in the same inning
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Yu Darvish appeared to have an eventful afternoon on Friday. And luckily for the rest of us, we were able to witness the events that gave us a little bit of everything.
For starters, in the bottom of the fifth during the Brewers-Cubs game, he struck out Manny Piña looking ... on a 64-mph curveball:
Yep -- Pina didn't seem to believe it either.
"I was never expecting him to throw that pitch," Pina told MLB.com's Adam McCalvy. "He just threw that one all day, right? I was ready for a two-seamer in, or a slider away, and then he threw me that. He was good. He was commanding very well, all of his pitches."
The fun continued for Darvish when he doubled on a line drive to right field in the bottom half of the inning. He wanted to make his way to third, but it seemed the infield was hot lava and the only way he would be safe is to reach for second base as quickly as possible:
He slipped a bit during his run attempt. This caused Justin Verlander to shake his head knowing the saying around "pitchers aren't athletes" just took five steps back:
"I told [Albert] Almora 'I'll be hitting a double so make sure you bunt afterward,'" Darvish told MLB.com's Carrie Muskat. "If I'd gone three, that wouldn't have been [right]. I purposely did a double and not a triple."
And Almora loved what he saw from Darvish.
"[Darvish] did a phenomenal job," said Almora. "When he got on base, I was like 'All right, I have to do my job,' and I didn't. I was like 'Hey man, my bad. You caught me off guard.' It was good for him. It was a different Yu I saw today. I'm excited for what's to come."
Joe Maddon called it the "triple [Darvish} turned into a double." And despite the hope of a triple, since he may not get another opportunity in his career, he was happy he didn't do too much.
What a day.