When the Cubs moved Yu Darvish's return to the rotation back one day, many assumed they didn't want him pitching at Wrigley Field, where he was booed in his last outing before going on the 10-day disabled list with the flu.
Cubs manager Joe Maddon said they simply took advantage of an off-day in the schedule that allowed them to move Jose Quintana into Monday's slot in the makeup game against the Braves.
So the Cubs didn't want Darvish to pitch in a different environment than the Friendly Confines?
"I know that that's going to be easy to look at and say that we did do that," Maddon said. "But just trying to gather as much time as we can coming off him being ill, and we just decided to go ahead and do that.
"If that day (off) was not available, if it did not turn out this way regarding the days in between starts, we could not have done it and he would've pitched (Monday). But because we could, we chose to do it that way."
Maddon said the Cubs aren't worried about Darvish's mental state.
"Honestly, I'm not," he said. "The guy has been good for so many years. He's got an outstanding arm. I think sometimes he gets a little bit speeded up in what he's doing. He and I have talked about that. But there's too much success there for me to be worried about that. He would not be in the position he is if that were in fact true. (He just) needs to slow things down."
Darvish will start Tuesday in Atlanta. In his last start against the Braves on April 13 at Wrigley, he allowed four runs on nine hits and four walks over 4 2/3 innings in a 4-0 loss.
"I don't care if I pitched only five innings, (with) eight runs allowed or something like that, if this team won the game," Darvish told Japanese reporters on Sunday. "The Braves are a good team, as they show in the standings. All I can do is do my best."
Darvish said he's still not 100 percent healthy but is close.
