No matter what else happens during the exciting pitching matchup of Yu Darvish and Jacob deGrom, one unexpected event did occur and that is fulfilling enough after all the hype going into Darvish’s first game as a Dodger.
Jacob deGrom stole the first base of his career on Yu Darvish’s watch
He is the first Mets pitcher to steal a base in nine years.
Photo by Elsa/Getty Images
Jacob deGrom stole a base. Jacob deGrom stole a base on Yu Darvish’s watch in the latter’s much-heralded debut in blue.
He is the first Mets pitcher in a full nine years to steal a base, with the last being Oliver Perez in 2008.
With such a hyped matchup in the Big Apple, everyone was focusing on each player’s pitching talent -- not the likelihood that they would attempt to steal a bag from the other.
However, it’s not so out of the question that Darvish would allow a steal, even if a pitcher steal is much more rare. He allowed 16 stolen bases before being traded, enough to be ranked 2nd in the AL in that category behind only White Sox starter Mike Pelfrey.
In the NL, his 16 steals allowed is good enough for a 3rd place ranking between Jake Arrieta and Jaime Garcia.
So if deGrom was going to try and go for it with anyone on the mound, Darvish was actually a pretty good option.
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