Yu Darvish, Jon Lester each donate $10,000 to ALS research

Cubs pitchers Yu Darvish and Jon Lester each donated $10,000 to a fund for ALS research organized by Athletics outfielder Stephen Piscotty in honor of his mother, Gretchen, who died Sunday night as a result of a disease.

The donations could be seen on the YouCaring page set up by Piscotty, which Darvish retweeted around the same time he made his donation. At the time of writing, over $48,000 has been raised for the $100,000 goal, with a huge chunk of that money coming from the Cubs pitchers.

Darvish, who joined the Cubs earlier this year after playing for the Rangers and Dodgers, also responded to a fan who praised his generosity on Twitter, telling the person, “We are all family.”

A video was published recently by ESPN on Piscotty’s relationship with his mother, who died at age 55. The outfielder was traded to the Athletics in the offseason so he could be closer to her, and the video captures some touching moments from their final months together.

Piscotty, on the YouCaring page, says that the reaction to his mother’s fight with ALS “stands as a testament to the person my mom is; not only to our family, but to so many she has touched along the way.”