Padres’ Yu Darvish joins epic 2-man club with Cy Young after wild performance vs Braves

With so many negative storylines surrounding pitchers this season due to the amount of season-ending injuries we’ve seen across Major League Baseball, some standout performers on the mound have flown under the radar. San Diego Padres right-hander Yu Darvish is the perfect example. On Sunday, the 37-year-old continued his dominant stretch against a potent Atlanta Braves lineup.

Darvish tossed seven scoreless innings against the Braves, allowing only three baserunners while striking out a season-high nine batters. Darvish extended his consecutive scoreless inning streak to 25 innings and joined Hall of Fame hurler Cy Young with an elite accomplishment.

Coming off his last start in which he surrendered two hits across seven innings, Darvish became the second-oldest pitcher in MLB history with consecutive scoreless starts of at least seven innings allowing two hits or fewer. A 38-year-old Cy Young did the same in September 1905, per Sarah Langs.

Along with that and extending his scoreless innings streak, Darvish earned his 200th professional win between the MLB and NPB (Japan’s top league) on Sunday. He’s the third Japanese-born pitcher to reach that number alongside Hiroki Kuroda and Hideo Nomo. Four more wins will see him surpassing both.

“I understand it’s a big number, but it’s still hard for me to comprehend it right now,” Darvish said through an interpreter, per Rick Farlow.

“Those two other pitchers, Hideo Nomo and Hiroki Kuroda, obviously we know how good they are. Just to be able to be a little closer to them, I feel honored and it gives me confidence moving forward.”

Darvish passed Nomo for most MLB strikeouts by a Japanese-born pitcher last August and is 25 away from 2,000 for his MLB career.

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