It has been a fantastic postseason for Major League Baseball, until last night. Houston first baseman Yuli Gurriel smacked a home run off of Dodgers’ pitcher Yu Darvish in the second inning. Darvish was having a terrible outing, giving up four runs and lasting less than two innings. Darvish’s poor performance, however, is not the story from Game 3.
It should have been a fantastic night for Houston, a city who was devastated just weeks ago and is looking for any way to escape thinking about what was lost during Hurricane Harvey. The Astros have been nothing short of amazing this postseason, giving the city of Houston something to believe in.
After Gurriel hit the home run off of Darvish, he went back to the dugout and completely embarrassed himself and his team by mocking Darvish’s race by pulling his eyes back. He also appeared to mouth the Spanish word “Chinito” which loosely translates to “little Chinese boy”. Darvish is from Japan and Gurriel was actually a member of the Yokohama DeNA BayStars which makes his actions even more puzzling. Gurriel played alongside Japanese players during his one-year contract, but still thought it was okay to disrespect Darvish’s background. All I can ask is, why? Why ruin a huge moment for both the team and the city of Houston by making such a classless gesture. The league and the commissioner are aware of the incident and we will see if they decide to take any action.
Gurriel apologized for his actions after the game, telling reporters, “I didn’t want to offend anybody. I don’t want to offend him or anybody in Japan. I have a lot of respect. I played in Japan.” He continued by saying that he has plenty of respect for Darvish and that he is one of the best pitchers in the league. So again, why do something that dumb?
Darvish handled the incident with class. After the game, he responded to Gurriel’s actions, posting on Twitter:
— ダルビッシュ有(Yu Darvish) (@faridyu) October 28, 2017
