By now everyone knows how incredibly good Dodgers right-hander Yu Darvish was in game-3 of the 2017 National League Championship Series on Tuesday night at Wrigley Field in Chicago. They know that after giving up a one out solo home run to Cubs left fielder Kyle Schwarber in the bottom of the first inning, the 31-year-old Habikino, Japan native was as lights out as lights out can be, allowing only that one run on six hits while walking one and striking out seven in his outstanding 6.1 innings of work. But what many Dodger fans – and baseball fans in general – may not know is that the 6′-5″ / 220-pound right-hander etched his name into MLB postseason history on Tuesday night … with his bat.

Sort of.

In a move that had every person on the planet who was watching the game on television, listening to it on the radio, or following it on Twitter in complete awe, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts had Darvish bat for himself in the top of the sixth inning with two outs and the bases loaded and at 69 pitches in a then precarious 3-1 ballgame – a move that caused Twitter to light up with comments from some of the brightest minds in the game (and from yours truly):

Lo and behold, and in what (yet again) made the defending National League Manager of the Year appear to be an absolute genius, Darvish drew a four-pitch RBI walk off of struggling Cubs right-hander Carl Edwards Jr. to make it a 4-1 ballgame in what would eventually end up being a 6-1 Dodgers win, to give the Dodgers a commanding 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven NLCS.

Cubs right-hander Carl Edwards Jr. never even came close to throwing a strike in his two-out, four-pitch, bases loaded walk to Dodgers right-hander Yu Darvish in the sixth inning to make it a 4-1 ballgame.
(Video capture courtesy of TBS)

But how on earth did Dave Roberts know? Why in the world would he send Darvish – who was a 1-for-17 (.059) with a walk and 14 strikeouts during the regular season – to the plate with what appeared to be specific instructions not to swing when he had a plethora of left-handed (and a few right-handed) bats on the bench that he could have called upon to pinch-hit for Darvish – a decision that ended up being one of the greatest managerial decisions of all time – that, as expected, drew even more comments on Twitter, most of which that included the word genius?

The answer is simple … He didn’t.

“Facing a guy who throws 95, 96 with a cutter, he’s got something special going,” Darvish told reporters after the game about his now famous walk. “I didn’t think I had a chance to hit. So I just wanted to try to do something, draw a walk or maybe get hit by pitch. Anything just to score runs.”

But even if the Darvish walk wasn’t planned – and let’s face it, how could it be – why did Roberts even put Darvish in that position in a game that was still very much on the line?

“Obviously, it validates and makes you feel better about it,” Roberts told reporters, after the game. “But you still have to go into that at-bat expecting not to come away with a run right there. The story of the night, obviously, is Yu Darvish.”

With his remarkable four-pitch walk, Darvish became the first pitcher to to do so in the postseason since Phillies right-hander Larry Christenson in the 1977 NLCS against (wait for it…) the Dodgers. But that’s not the historic part. Here’s the historic part:

After his now historic four-pitch RBI walk, the normally stoic Darvish did something that raised eyebrows everywhere. He did a world-class bat toss.

Darvish’s post-walk bat toss would make Yasiel Puig blush.
(Video capture courtesy of TBS)

If the 2017 Dodgers are not a team of destiny, I’m not sure that there will ever be one.

Play Ball!