Yu Darvish Set Incredible MLB Record on Monday

San Diego Padres starting pitcher Yu Darvish made his MLB debut back in 2012 at just 25 years old. Ever since breaking into the big leagues, Darvish has mastered the art of the strikeout, owning a career average of 11.1 strikeouts per nine innings.

Thanks to this dominance of the strikeout, Darvish actually set an incredible MLB all-time record on Monday night. Not only did Darvish lead the Padres to an important 6-2 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Monday, but he did so while racking up 11 strikeouts.

With those 11 strikeouts, Darvish became the first pitcher in MLB history to record 1,500 career strikeouts in fewer than 200 games. Last night was the 197th game of Darvish's MLB career.

San Diego Padres News

The Padres traded for Darvish this offseason to land him from the Chicago Cubs. Ultimately, the goal was to cement a clear-cut top-of-rotation ace to this ferocious offense. The result has been everything San Diego could have hoped for, with Darvish owning a 7-2 record and 2.50 ERA in 15 starts.

Throughout his nine-year MLB career, Darvish has racked up 200-plus strikeouts in four different seasons. He's already recorded 108 in 90.0 innings pitched this season and is on pace for another 200-strikeout campaign.

Darvish and the rest of the Padres pitching staff have been the best staff in baseball this season with their league-leading 3.12 team ERA. Only the New York Mets match this stellar team ERA stat. Still, this team has work to do in the tough NL West division. San Diego is 43-32 overall (8th-best record in MLB), but sits in third place in the division trailing by 4.5 games.

Thanks to his stellar 2021 season, Darvish sits with the fifth-best odds (+1800) to take home the NL Cy Young award, according to MLB odds on FanDuel Sportsbook. San Diego also owns the fourth-best odds (+850) to win the World Series. They'll need Darvish to remain pitching like a true ace down the stretch.

Sign up for FanDuel Sportsbook today and get your first bet risk free for up to $1,000!

Adam Taylor McKillop is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Adam Taylor also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username atmckillop. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.