The vote total shows the draw that Darvish has mounted beyond just Dallas and Fort Worth, where he plays with the Texas Rangers.
With 15 pitchers on the roster for each league, it was not surprising that Darvish did not get called on to pitch. That may have been to his liking considering that his American League team was blasted 8-0 by the National League team. Darvish’s coach, Ron Washington, was coaching the American League team.
The All-Star Game marks mid-season for Major League Baseball in the United States.
At the mid-point, Darvish is looking strong—but with weak points—among the 383 Major League pitchers in baseball this year who have pitched more than 20 innings.
Darvish is tied for sixth in the number of games he has won for his team. He is ranked a very impressive 10th in the number of strikeouts he has racked up. He was known as a strikeout king in Japan and is continuing that in the United States.
But at the season mid-point, he is tied for fourth place in the number of walks he has given up. He has been giving up fewer walks this past month but his stats are still saddled with his promiscuousness earlier in the season.
His earned run average (ERA), the single statistic most watched among pitchers is 3.59, unimpressive when compared to his 1.99 ERA over his career in Japan. His American ERA ranks him 179th among the 383 pitchers—not bad, but nothing to brag about.
Going into the second half of the season, Darvish will continue as one of the Texas Rangers’ five starting pitchers, generally playing every fifth game for the team, which currently leads the American League with 52 wins and 34 losses, the best record the team has ever had at the All-Star break.