Yu Darvish says Craig Kimbrel taught him nasty new pitch

Yu Darvish is making the most of his time with new teammate Craig Kimbrel.

The Chicago Cubs right-hander, who went eight innings strong on Tuesday to earn the 5-2 win over the New York Mets, said that he got two of his seven strikeouts on the day with his new knucklecurve. Darvish added that Kimbrel taught him that pitch a week ago, per Jordan Bastian of MLB.com.

Bastian also shared video of the nasty movement on Darvish’s knucklecurve.

Here's a look at the knucklecurve that Darvish used to K McNeil in the 8th inning. More velo than his usual curve. pic.twitter.com/pPGf6aQaYZ

— Jordan Bastian (@MLBastian) August 28, 2019

Kimbrel, who signed with the Cubs in June, was just activated from the injured list earlier this month after missing time due to knee inflammation. He has had the knucklecurve in his bag for many years now, but it is not nearly as prevalent as in years past when pitchers like Mike Mussina and Jason Isringhausen would freeze hitters with it.

As for Darvish, he recently explained why he feels he has the best stuff of his life, and Kimbrel’s tutelage certainly seems to be helping there as well.