MESA, Ariz. – When Yu Darvish was done talking to Japanese media after his first spring start, he glanced at the Chicago media and walked instead the other way, toward the clubhouse.
Just before he got to the door, he stopped, turned back to the writers and smiled.
He then spent the next seven minutes chatting and joking as easily as he had commanded a 98-mph fastball and five other pitches during an electric two innings against the Brewers.
“Sounds about right from him,” Cubs veteran Jon Lester said after his own sharp three innings a day later on Sunday.