The start was Darvish’s second since returning from the elbow discomfort that first shelved him in spring training and persisted after a mid-May rehab game with Triple-A El Paso.

In that start in Las Vegas for Triple-A El Paso, Darvish worked four innings well enough that the Padres expected he was close to returning. At the same time, he wondered if he could go on.

San Diego Padres starting pitcher Yu Darvish thought he may have had to retire during his injury struggles which caused him to miss most of the first half of the 2025 season.

Darvish's latest outing saw him move into 84th place on the career strikeout list (with 2,018) when he caught Ivan Herrera looking at a breaking ball in the first inning. But his 11 strikeouts in ...