Yu Darvish threw eight different pitches last year, by Statcast’s count, and threw nine the year before that. He’s capable of throwing 11 pitches, a number that you don’t reach without the sort of curiosity that drives many pitchers when they watch their teammates throw in the bullpen or in a game.

“Oh yeah — It’s, ‘Can I add this to my arsenal? Can I try to do what he’s doing?’” Padres right-hander Michael King said Sunday as locker-mate Nick Pivetta walked up on him. “We just saw (Yoshinobu) Yamamoto throw his splitter and (Pivetta) was like, ‘I wish I could throw the Yamamoto splittter,’ and I’m like, ‘You can. You just have to figure it out.’ He’s just not that athletic enough to do it.

“It’s all right.”

King made sure he was speaking loud enough for Pivetta to hear as the team pack

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