When the Dodgers acquired right-hander Yu Darvish in the final minutes prior to the non-waiver trade deadline on July 31, by every indication they made their already MLB-best starting rotation even better. They already owned a 14-game lead over the second place Arizona Diamondbacks and a 14.5-game lead over the third place Colorado Rockies in the National League West.

In his debut with his new team against the New York Mets at Citi Field on August 4, the 6′-5″ / 220-pound Habikino, Japan native flat out dominated the then NL East third place Mets to pick up his first win in a Dodger uniform; the result of a nearly unbeatable Dodgers offense. And even though Darvish would win his next game against the Dbacks on August 10 at Chase Field in Arizona, he hasn’t won a game for the Dodgers since. In fact, Darvish didn’t make it past the sixth inning in his next three games as a Dodger and past the fifth inning in two of those three.

In his 26 innings with the Dodgers through five starts, Darvish has made it into the seventh inning only once, while allowing 13 earned runs on 30 hits, including six home runs. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

In game-2 of Saturday’s day-night doubleheader against the NL West fourth place San Diego Padres, who have already been eliminated from the postseason with four weeks remaining in the 2017 regular season, Darvish didn’t make it past the third inning, having allowed five runs on eight hits (including a home run) in the eventual 7-2 loss to one of the worst teams in all of baseball, this on top of having also lost the first game of the twin bill.

“Today there were some good things, there were some things that weren’t great execution-wise,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, after the second game of the doubleheader. “I think the thing for me is, and I told Yu after, is just to keep his confidence. He’s working through some things and there were … yeah, he gave up the home run to (Padres second baseman Carlos) Asuaje, tried to get it in there, but there were a lot of ground balls that found holes and so.

“The curveball was up a little bit, the fastball, didn’t get it located sometimes, but like I said, we’re trending the right way. I know the line score doesn’t seem that way, but the most important thing for me is for him to go out there and continue to compete,” Roberts added. “I know he wanted to go deeper in the game and give us more length obviously in a doubleheader, but it wasn’t the case and we’ve got to keep working and figure this thing out.”

That ‘thing’ that Roberts and Darvish himself are talking about is what they are calling a ‘mechanical thing’ that now has the soft-spoken right-hander sitting at 8-11 on the season (2-2 in his five starts with the Dodgers) with a less-than-stellar combined 4.09 ERA.

“There’s a gap between what I’m thinking in my mind and what I’m actually doing on the mound,” Darvish said about his mechanical issues. “That’s what I’m trying to fix. If I can fix that I feel I can pitch way better than now.

“It’s  physical movement that I think I’m doing but I’m not doing,” he added. “I’ll give you an example. Sometimes I cross step. I step to the third-base side. But in my mind, I’m stepping more to the first-base side. That’s the gap I’m talking about. Say, you think you’re walking straight and you’re actually not. That’s frustrating, right?”

Frustrating indeed.

But might it be more than just a mechanical thing? Could it possibly be an undisclosed health issue with Darvish having now made a combined 27 starts on the season thus far?

“No health concerns,” Roberts said adamantly.

Although the Dodgers head into Sunday’s four-game series finally against the Padres with a rather comfortable 14.5-game lead over the Dbacks and have a magic number of 13, the second place Dbacks are currently enjoying a nine-game winning streak and begin a three-game series with the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium on Monday. During that same nine-game stretch, the Dodgers are 2-7, with three of those losses against the Snakes at Chase Field.

The very obvious concern with Darvish – mechanical or otherwise – is that this late in the season and with perhaps only four starts remaining for him, it’s a bit late to be working on mechanical issues, wouldn’t you say?

…or wouldn’t Yu say?