Padres’ Jose Iglesias delivers 2-word verdict as Yu Darvish outduels Blake Snell and Co. in 2-1 win

The Padres were swept by their bitter rivals during their last visit to Dodger Stadium earlier this month. They were desperate to exact revenge when the LA Dodgers, the 2024 World Series champions, came to town on Friday.

That's exactly what they accomplished in the series opener, courtesy of a superb performance from Yu Darvish. The veteran pitched six innings, allowing a single earned run from a single hit and striking out five.

Thanks to Darvish's heroics, the Padres recorded a hard-fought 2-1 win, despite Blake Snell's impressive performance for the Dodgers.

Shortly after the game, Darvish posted a series of snaps from the game on Instagram, celebrating his stellar outing.

Reacting to the post, teammate Jose Iglesias dropped a two-word comment, summing up Darvish's dominance on the mound.

"The man 🔥👏," Jose Iglesias wrote.

Screenshot of Jose Iglesias' comment on Yu Darvish's Instagram post (Images from - Instagram.com/@darvishsefat11)

Just like Darvish, Iglesias has been a key member of the Padres' strong season so far, providing quality backup for regular shortstop Xander Bogaerts, while also being a decent lower-order bat.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts says his team "couldn't figure out Yu Darvish", as the Padres go joint top of NL West

After Yu Darvish's fantastic outing on Friday, his teammates were not the only ones to commend his performance. Speaking to insider Sonja Chen of MLB.com, LA Dodgers manager Dave Roberts lauded the Japanese star while also praising the Padres' rock-solid bullpen for holding things down in the latter innings.

"Unfortunately, we couldn't figure out Darvish. They went to the ’pen, and [we] really threatened a couple times late but just couldn't get that big hit," Roberts said.

Yu Darvish in action against the Los Angeles Dodgers- Source: Getty

Apart from bragging rights, Friday's win was extremely important for San Diego's aspirations of winning their division, as it took them joint top of the NL West alongside the Dodgers.

With both teams having matched each other stride-for-stride so far this season, it will be interesting to see how this thrilling race for the top spot in the NL West concludes, as the finish line gets closer by the day.

About the author

Raghav Mehta is a baseball journalist at Sportskeeda awaiting results for a Bachelor's in Journalism from Delhi University. He enjoys highlighting the key battles between players at different stages of the game and analyzing the decisive moments upon which they hinge.

One of Raghav's favorite moments, which underscores this, was the Shohei Ohtani vs. Mike Trout clash in the 2023 WBC, where two of baseball's best players faced off against each other in the 9th inning. With the score 3-2 to Japan, Shohei eventually got the strikeout, which was absolute cinema.

Raghav is a Baltimore Orioles fan and is enjoying watching such an exciting young team compete at the top in a very competitive division.

Raghav has loved watching sports for as long as he can remember and realized he was pretty decent at writing his thoughts down at around the age of 14. Combining the two meant he had something he would enjoy doing every day, and he had identified that well before going to college.

Aside from work, Raghav enjoys playing sports, working out and watching movies.

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Edited by Parag Jain