Chicago Cubs: Yu Darvish lacks fastball control in return to the mound

Chicago Cubs: Poor pitch usage, ineffectiveness proved costly

Now, there’s no way to look at what transpired on Saturday and feel good about it. A pig with lipstick is still a pig at the end of the day. This was an ugly outing – period. Sure, there were some borderline calls that didn’t go his way, but Darvish failed to execute when it counted and that’s the story to take away from his first start of 2019.

Nearly one-third of his pitches on Saturday were sliders, according to MLB.com. 62 of his 75 pitches on the night were either said slider or a diminished four-seamer. For a guy who’s got one of the most comprehensive arsenals in Major League Baseball, relying on two pitches 83 percent of the time isn’t going to cut it.

Yu Darvish is going to have to learn to trust his stuff moving forward and, perhaps most importantly, shake off the bumps in the road you’re going to experience with every outing. If he can do that, hopefully, we can all look back at Saturday’s outing as just another hiccup on his road to redemption.