Darvish to make March 7 Cactus League start

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updated 7:20 p.m. ET Feb. 27, 2012

SURPRISE, Ariz. - Yu Darvish faced two Texas Rangers minor leaguers in a spring training practice session Monday. On March 7, he will face big league hitters from another team for the first time.

The Rangers said Darvish will get the start against the San Diego Padres in Peoria, Ariz. He would likely pitch two innings.

The Rangers signed Darvish, a 25-year-old right-hander who was a dominant pitcher for seven years in Japan, to a six-year, $56 million contract on Jan. 18. With the posting money, the Rangers paid more than $107 million for Darvish, who was 18-6 with a 1.44 ERA and 276 strikeouts last year with Hokkaido.

Darvish threw 34 pitches on Monday to Mike Bianucci and Vince DiFazio, who have not played above Class AA. Bianucci said the two talked about going deep off Darvish in batting practice, but it did not happen.

"It would have been great to do it, but a guy with a movement like that you're just trying to put a good swing on it especially with him," Bianucci said. "He's not going to make too many mistakes where you can get the ball out of the ball park."

DiFazio said Darvish was "very impressive."

"I'm just happy I made contact a couple of times," said Bianucci, who hit .232 last season for Myrtle Beach. "I saw a pretty good firm sinker, low 90s, and he backed it up with the same velocity, but a splitter. It was pretty nasty. He didn't tip it at all. It was pretty hard to pick up. He threw me a pretty nasty slider. It looked like a fastball out of his hands. By the time I started my swing, it was almost in the dirt. I have to give him that one. He doesn't make too many mistakes."

Bianucci, who went to Auburn and hit 30 home runs last season for Frisco in the Texas League, said everything Darvish threw had "a lot of late, late movement."

"I noticed he never backed up the same pitch twice," Bianucci said. "That breaking ball I swung through, it's got such good movement, where it starts off high and looks like it is going to stay up a little bit. It almost looks like an illusion. It stops three quarters of the way and just falls."

While early in camp, most clubs want their pitchers throwing about 80-90 percent, Darvish said he was working at "120" percent.

"It's not so much of a workout of throwing certain pitches, but I was more concerned about how my body worked and how I felt and taking it from last time," Darvish said through an interpreter. "I was very satisfied how with how it worked today."

Jeff Andrews, the Rangers pitching coach in Frisco said he was not surprised that Darvish was amped up.

"The interesting thing he was still in the mode of telling guys what's coming and you still didn't see many good swings off him," Andrews said. "The hitter knew what was coming and you still didn't see a lot of hard contact, which is a credit to Yu."

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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