Leading baseball in strikeouts and strikeouts per inning, Yu Darvish is enjoying quite an exciting second season in Major League Baseball, having four 14 or more strikeout games so far this season, while the rest of MLB has only three.
He opened the season with a 14-strikeout game in a 7-0 win over the Astors, and then began May with another similar game, although he didn’t get the win recorded as the Rangers eventually beat the Red Sox 4-3. Three weeks later he had another no-decision with 14-strikeouts as the Diamondbacks beat the Rangers 5-4.
His latest trick? Needing 7 innings to strikeout 14 batters and pick up his 10th win of the season (in 21 starts) as the Rangers beat the Diamondbacks 7-1.
Chris Sale had a 14-strikeout game in June, although he also didn’t win it; Anibal Sanchez needed 8-innings to throw 17 strikeouts against the Atlanta Braves on April 26, in a 10-0 win. Jose Fernandez of the Miami Marlins is one of the few players this sad organization has a reason to be happy about, also having one 14-strikeout game in a 10-0 win over the Indians.
A historic reference? Only four pitchers have had more than two 14 K, 0 BB games in their career: Roger Clemens, Pedro Martinez, Randy Johnson, Yu Darvish. Darvish has three such games this year.