The Dodgers figured Jack Flaherty would really feel proper at dwelling once they acquired him from the Detroit Tigers on July 30. They weren’t essentially anticipating a 103-degree temperature at first pitch at dwelling, one thing that had by no means occurred in an everyday season recreation at Dodger Stadium before Sunday.
Maybe it figures {that a} Los Angeles native can be as much as the duty of pitching in excessive warmth.
Flaherty pitched into the eighth inning for the primary time in seven begins for the reason that commerce — a godsend for a staff that used a bullpen recreation to beat the Guardians the day earlier than. He allowed solely 4 hits and didn’t stroll a batter for 7.1 shutout innings.
Flaherty was successfully a three-pitch pitcher Sunday. He led together with his four-seamer, which topped out at 95.4 mph, and elicited solely three swings and misses amongst 46 pitches. However the pitch yielded little or no laborious contact among the many 9 balls the Guardians put in play towards the fastball.
In any other case, Flaherty relied on his slider (22 pitches) and curveball (20) — every of which yielded no laborious contact.
Flaherty lowered his ERA for the season to 2.86, 2.61 since becoming a member of the Dodgers. Sunday’s efficiency additional cemented his place as the favourite to start out Recreation 1 of a possible postseason sequence, notably if the harm questions which have adopted Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow this summer time persist.
If Flaherty’s sturdiness was a query after logging highs of six innings and 110 pitches in his first six begins after the commerce, he answered that in an environment friendly, 92-pitch outing.
That Flaherty dominated Cleveland is extra spectacular provided that he was dealing with a lineup with seven left-handed hitters — together with switch-hitters Brayan Rocchio and Jose Ramirez. Of his 92 pitches Sunday, 71 had been to opposite-handed batters.
As Eno Sarris wrote recently for The Athletic, emphasizing the curveball towards lefties has been a key level of emphasis for Flaherty for the reason that commerce. He threw the curveball twice as typically to lefties as he did to righties Sunday. Writes Sarris:
The Dodgers obtained a pitcher within the midst of an excellent season and nonetheless felt the identical, as they upped his curve utilization almost 10 share factors to maintain him profitable. Whereas his numbers with the Dodgers are a bit of bit worse than they had been with the Detroit Tigers, this alteration may need been sensible. They’ve upped the curve utilization towards lefties in LA.
This might’ve been the best transfer as a result of the slugging share by lefties towards Flaherty’s slider has been rising, as much as .406 earlier than he modified groups. After all, he made the swap and lefties at the moment are slugging near .700 towards the slider this month. By no means thoughts, it’s the .111 lefty slugging towards the curve that issues, since he’s gone to that pitch extra typically in these conditions.
— by way of Eno Sarris, The Athletic
House runs by Shohei Ohtani and Max Muncy gave Flaherty a 4-0 cushion, leaving him in line for the victory.
Picture Credit score: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports activities
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