(670 The Score) With a Cy Young-caliber regular season behind him, Cubs right-hander Yu Darvish is now anxiously awaiting his first playoff start for Chicago.
Darvish will take the mound when the Cubs host the Marlins in Game 2 of their wild-card round series Thursday afternoon. The start will come after Darvish's spectacular regular season in which he went 8-3 with a 2.01 ERA and 0.96 WHIP in 12 starts.
Darvish has been looking forward to pitching in the playoffs again for a long time, as his last experience there was marred by he and his Dodgers team being on the losing end in the World Series against an Astros club that was cheating by using technology to steal signs.
"Knowing this is my first time with the Cubs in playoffs, I am so excited," Darvish said.
Darvish signed a six-year, $126-million with Chicago in February 2018, then had an injury-riddled first season that included just eight starts. He was injured as the Cubs lost in the wild-card game that year.
Darvish had his breakthrough in the second half of 2019, dominating with a 2.76 ERA and 0.81 WHIP in 13 starts after the All-Star break. The disappointment was that the Cubs didn't advance to the playoffs after faltering in September.
Now, the success of Darvish and the Cubs has aligned. He has started a playoff game at Wrigley Field before, throwing 6 1/3 innings of one-run ball for the Dodgers in a win against the Cubs in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series in 2017.
"That game will not have much effect on what I do here," Darvish said. "I just concentrate on my next start."
Darvish will start on five days rest Thursday. That's one more day of rest than usual, which he thought might help a bit but otherwise didn't put much stock in. Darvish knows it will be all about producing Thursday. Darvish hasn't faced the Marlins this season, as the Cubs only faced foes in the NL Central and AL Central in the truncated campaign. He faced Miami twice in 2019, but those Marlins lineups looked much different.
Darvish credited the Cubs coaching staff for both their support and the freedom to allow him to tinker with his arsenal, as Darvish enjoys experimenting with a variety of different pitches and grips.
"They allow being different than other players," Darvish said. "Every bullpen, I try something new. The staff letting me do that is big for me."
Bruce Levine covers the Cubs and White Sox for 670 The Score. Follow him on Twitter @MLBBruceLevine.
