Chicago Cubs: Yu Darvish says #TakeThat to the Kapman

After a crazy win over the Giants on Wednesday night, Yu Darvish and David Kaplan engaged in a war of words over pitch selection. Naturally, since it’s 2019, the battle occurred on Twitter and featured tons of stats.

Yu Darvish isn’t one to argue with people on the internet or in general, based on his couple years in Chicago. He is, however, a seemingly reflective and sensitive individual who has a ton of respect for his teammates, the media, and the game that he plays.

Which makes what unfolded this week on Twitter just a teeny bit strange, but somehow refreshingly positive as well. See, when your uber respectful, Japanese-born $126 million man decides to get into a Twitter back-and-forth with one of the most unfiltered media personalities in Chicago, you perk up and get your popcorn ready.

What makes this story interesting, besides the fact that it seems a bit out of character for Darvish (but not at all for David Kaplan)? That Darvish has been throwing like an ace for the better part of two months. He finally had an ‘off’ night, and Kaplan jumped on him Twitter-Fu style/

While it seemed a bit like the old ‘kicking a man when he was down’ adage on Kaplan’s part, Darvish had no problem getting off the canvas after his team walked away with a crazy 12-11 victory that gave him yet another no-decision this season.

In fact, despite the six earned runs allowed in 5 1/3 innings, Darvish was, dare I say, jocular in the postgame locker room. At one point during an interview, as someone farted in the background, Yu laughed, looked askance, and even called out Derek Holland for the smelly infraction. Probably erroneously, but that’s not the point.