Rangers will monitor Yu Darvish’s pitch count, innings closely

Yu Darvish will be limited to 85 to 90 pitches in his first outing Saturday, Rangers pitching coach Doug Brocail said.

Darvish threw 87 pitches Sunday in his last rehab start with Double A Frisco. It’s the most he threw in the five rehab starts. Darvish faces the Pittsburgh Pirates at 6:15 p.m. Saturday at Globe Life Park. It’s the first regular-season big league game since August 2014.

Manager Jeff Banister said the club will not announce an inning threshold for Darvish in 2016. The Mets’ Matt Harvey was expecting to cap his season at 180 innings in 2015 after returning from Tommy John surgery but went past that with the Mets reaching the World Series.

“With any pitcher who has been injured, I think you gauge the innings based on how they perform in each as well as the stress level in each,” Banister said. “I would say it’s not as clean as saying we’re going to limit him to 145 innings. Because how you get to 145 is important. We’re going to monitor each game, the pitch count and the stress innings, and if there are any setbacks in between outings.”

Brocail expects Darvish to pitch in the same style he did before surgery.

“This last outing gave us some good direction for where he’s at,” Brocail said. “It was nice to hear that he was able to go full bore. I think we’ll see him operate that way. He’s going to pitch how he knows how to pitch. Yu knows how to get people out and he knows that he spins the ball probably better than anybody in the game and that’s how he’s going to approach it.”

Chirinos rehab

An X-ray Tuesday showed catcher Robinson Chirinos’ fracture right forearm has healed. He has started a simulated program and hit soft toss pitches before Tuesday’s game. He’ll catch a seven-inning simulated game Wednesday morning and a nine-inning simulated game Friday.

“If all goes well we’ll progress from there and think about where he can start a rehab,” Banister said.

The Rangers want Chirinos to get 45 to 50 at-bats in the minors. They expect him to be available on June 9, the day his 60-day disabled list stint ends.

“To know it’s already healed 100 percent, it kind of takes that pressure off your mind,” he said.

Tolleson confident

Shawn Tolleson was back on the mound Monday since he was removed as the closer. He threw 1  1/3 innings of scoreless relief in the seventh and eighth innings. He allowed a hit and struck out two. It was his first appearance since allowing four runs in  2/3 of an inning May 17.

“It was good to get back out there and get through a 1  1/3 and keep our team in the game. It felt good to do that,” he said.

Tolleson said his previous struggles are no mystery. It comes down to executing his pitches.

“I feel healthy, I feel good and my stuff is still good,” he said. “My execution has just been off.”

He’s tried not to over think the issue while blowing four saves in 15 chances.

“You can do all sorts of stuff. Sometimes you can do too much, I think. I still feel confident I can get it done, that I can still execute my pitches,” he said. “My bullpens feel great, I’m hitting every spot, my stuff is sharp.

“So for me, it’s being able to slow things down, carry that into a game, and really just building my confidence back up and know I’m going to throw the pitch where I need to. I feel like it happened some [Monday] night.”

Griffin rocks

A.J. Griffin received a new Yamaha keyboard in the clubhouse Tuesday and showed off his chops by playing a couple of tunes. He played a snippet of Bob Marley’s No Woman, No Cry and did a faithful version of the organ opening to Led Zeppelin’s Your Time Is Gonna Come.

Griffin also plays a mean guitar, which he displayed during spring training. What can’t he play? The drums, he said. That’s probably a good thing. Not sure a drum kit would go over well in the clubhouse.

This story was originally published May 24, 2016 at 4:58 PM with the headline "Rangers will monitor Yu Darvish’s pitch count, innings closely."