NEW YORK (AP) — Yu Darvish always makes the New York Mets look light on offense.
General manager Billy Eppler is trying to do something about that — no matter which opponent is on the mound.
Darvish dominated the Mets again, and Eric Hosmer hit a two-run homer off three-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer that sent the San Diego Padres to a 4-1 victory Friday night.
“We beat a guy like that, that can really give you some momentum,” Hosmer said. “We did a good job of really just sticking to our approach tonight. We wanted to wait him out a little bit.”
Less than an hour before the first pitch, which was delayed 31 minutes because of rain in the area, the NL East-leading Mets announced a trade: They acquired beefy designated hitter Daniel Vogelbach from the Pittsburgh Pirates for rookie reliever Colin Holderman.
Shut down by Darvish, the Mets certainly looked as though they could use more punch. The right-hander topped Scherzer in a matchup of aces and improved to 5-0 with a 2.56 ERA in eight career starts against New York.
“A lot to learn from a pitcher like that,” Darvish said through a translator. “You actually go through his videos, watch him pitch. You learn sort of the mental aspect of the game through him. So really I was looking forward to facing him tonight and pitching against him.”
Trent Grisham also went deep for the Padres in the opener of a three-game series between NL playoff contenders coming out of the All-Star break. New York’s division lead was sliced to 1 1/2 games over defending World Series champion Atlanta.
Aided by some fine defense, Darvish (9-4) struck out nine and walked one in seven sparkling innings. He allowed four hits, including a two-out RBI double by Luis Guillorme that spoiled the shutout bid in the seventh.
Darvish also tossed…
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