Yu Darvish strikes out Trevor Plouffe on 61-mph curveball (GIF)
Yu Darvish flirted with a no-hitter yet again, and he was making Minnesota Twins batters look foolish along the way.
Darvish took a no-hitter into the seventh on Friday before allowing a walk, 2-run home run to Chris Herrmann, and solo home run to Josh Willingham. Prior to getting hit around in the seventh, he was confusing the Twins with an assortment of great stuff. Nothing was better than what he did to Plouffe in the top of the fifth.
Darvish struck out Plouffe on three pitches to end the inning. The Twins third baseman took an inside breaking ball for a called strike, then a fastball for a called strike, and he waved at a 61-mph curveball to end the inning. He was obviously confused and just threw his bat out there as an emergency swing. But Plouffe did get some revenge; he got a hit off Darvish in the seventh to chase the pitcher from the game.
In the image below, you can see just how far in front of the pitch Plouffe was:
Plouffe shouldn’t feel badly; Darvish has gotten Miguel Cabrera on the same pitch.
H/T CJ Zero
