Shoei
Darvishsefat

Darvish worked through a rough opening stretch before settling in for a quality outing, flashing the deep arsenal that has made him one of the more intriguing arms in the Dons’ staff. The right-hander worked 87-90 mph, touching 91, with natural arm-side run on the fastball and complemented it with a full mix that included a 74-75 mph curveball, 76-78 mph slider, 82 mph changeup, and an 84-85 mph cutter. Early in the outing, he ran into trouble with a pair of two-out hits that led to two runs, but quickly found his rhythm and settled in. From the second through fourth innings, Darvish looked as sharp as he has in any of the three live looks I’ve had of him. He leaned heavily on his secondaries — particularly the slider, which was used roughly half the time — allowing the fastball to play up when he went back to it. With five distinct pitches coming from the same slot, he created consistent tunneling and kept hitters uncomfortable with nothing coming out of the hand straight. While the outing didn’t produce major swing-and-miss totals (3 Ks), he generated plenty of weak contact and navigated four innings to keep Cathedral Catholic within reach. His effort proved valuable as the Dons later rallied with a big fifth inning to secure the win.