Yu Darvish gets revenge on Christian Yelich nearly a year in the making

Yu Darvish threw six no-hit innings against Christian Yelich’s Milwaukee Brewers on Thursday night

While Darvish would never admit it, Thursday’s utter dominance of the Brewers at Wrigley Field should’ve been personal. Such a matchup is nearly a year in the making.

After a sub-par year by Darvish’s standards in 2019 — we’re talking 6-8, 3.98 ERA — Yelich threw some shade his way on Twitter after the season. Now, Darvish might’ve had this coming, given he essentially accused the Brewers of sign-stealing at Miller Park, but Yelich’s insult, which insinuated that very few MLB hitters are still afraid to face Darvish, came off as extreme given the circumstances.

Darvish shut down the Brew Crew on Thursday

The quote in question, in which Darvish claimed that the Brewers typically had their eyes set on right-center field rather than directly back at the pitcher, did seem to insinuate they were doing something illegal. However, Darvish came out right after and said, directly, that this does not mean the Brewers were stealing signs. Most teams are up to something shady at their home ballpark, but there’s a difference between those wrongdoings and the Houston Astros, who went above and beyond in their efforts to gain an unfair advantage.

https://twitter.com/BleacherNation/status/1195423795818967040

Darvish admitted defeat after Yelich’s comment, once again confirming on Twitter that he wasn’t accusing the Brewers of stealing signs. But the damage was done, and while Darvish isn’t one to take comments from the opposition personally, you can bet he remember a former National League MVP throwing venom in his direction.

Yelich has a career average well over .300 over Darvish, so he has every right to make such comments. But for most of MLB, Darvish remains a tough at-bat, especially with the renewed confidence he’s found in the shortened 2020 season.

As much as we love Yeli, he’d be better served speaking for himself, especially if his teammates can’t help him back up his smack talk.