Yu Darvish strikes out batter with 63-mph eephus pitch (GIF)
By Bryan Rose
When we think of impressive strikeouts, we think of guys like Randy Johnson or Nolan Ryan, absolutely blowing guys away with heat.
We don’t really think of famed pitchers like Charlie Hough who did his damage with slow-pitches like knuckleballs.
Very rarely have we ever seen a pitcher who could combine both speeds though, but Texas Rangers ace Yu Darvish is that man.
Known to light up the radar gun with pitches in the mid to upper 90’s, Darvish is a well known hard thrower but he also can get funky at times as he did recently, striking out Adam Lind of the Toronto Blue Jays on a 63-mph eephus pitch.
Sitting in a 2-2 count, Lind was likely expecting some type of heat but Darvish completely changed course on that idea, throwing what looked to be a lob towards home plate, completely locking up the power hitter who couldn’t even manage to get the bat off his shoulder.
Lind had been fighting off multiple pitches in the at-bat, so Darvish, tiring of the back-and-forth decided to drop the hammer on the tenth and final pitch, sending Lind back to the dugout with a rather stunned look.
Completely unfair.
H/T CJZero