HOUSTON: Japanese pitcher Yu Darvish makes his World Series debut in a familiar ballpark Thursday, trying to put the Los Angeles Dodgers back atop the Houston Astros in the championship showdown.
The 31-year-old right-hander takes the mound with a calm, composed outlook despite Major League Baseball’s best-of-seven final being deadlocked 1-1 after Houston’s 7-6 win Tuesday at Los Angeles.
“It’s just who I am and my character,” Darvish said Wednesday through a translator. “When I get off the mound, I just want the team to have a chance to win, so that’s my goal tomorrow.”
Darvish, who came to the United States in 2012 after seven seasons with Japan’s Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters, was traded to the Dodgers in July from the Texas Rangers, an American League West division rival of the Astros.
In the past five years at Houston with the Rangers, Darvish was 4-1 with a 2.16 earned-run average and 56 striekouts in 41 2/3 innings, last winning here on June 12 by allowing only one run in seven innings in a 6-1 victory.
“It’s better to know this stadium and I’ve pitched well here before,” Darvish said. “Maybe it will give me a little bit of an advantage, but it really doesn’t matter.”
Darvish does think he will benefit by playing under American League rules in which pitchers don’t have to bat, replaced in the lineup by a designated hitter.
“I think it’s going to be a big advantage for me not to go out there and swing a bat and I don’t have to run or anything like that,” Darvish said.
Astros batters will see some changes in Darvish’s pitching strategy, the Asian ace having adjusted his approach since joining the Dodgers, attacking right-handed hitters with fastballs and lefties with breaking cutter fastballs.
“I really don’t change much going into tomorrow’s outing, but to them I’m a different kind of pitcher, different type of pitcher in my pitch selection,” Darvish said. “So they feel I may have a different approach.”
Since joining the Dodgers, Darvish went 4-3 with a 3.44 ERA in the season and has won two playoff games, allowing two earned runs over 11 1/3 innings with 14 strikeouts and only one walk.
“Every player has a different thing that drives them — fame, fortune, individual success. I think it’s just he wants to win a championship,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Now he’s sort of on autopilot, just trying to do whatever it takes to win a championship.”
Darvish has shined on some of the sport’s biggest stages, leading his team to Japan’s national high school final, winning a Japan League title and helping his homeland capture the 2009 World Baseball Classic.
“Yu has had a lot of experiences and he’s prepared for this moment,” Roberts said. “I know he’s excited so there’s going to be butterflies. But we expect him to pitch well.”
A major part of that has been simplifying Darvish’s versatile arsenal of deceptive pitches.
“Simplifying his pitch mix, we did as an organization. I think he really bought into and embraced,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.
“When he came over, there was a lot of him trying to feel his way through a start, where now he can just worry about executing pitches. So that’s got to lead to clarity.
“He’s in a great place. And he says it himself, that he’s very comfortable and confident.”