The Dodgers figured Jack Flaherty would really feel proper at house after they acquired him from the Detroit Tigers on July 30. They weren’t essentially anticipating a 103-degree temperature at first pitch at house, one thing that had by no means occurred in a daily season sport at Dodger Stadium earlier than 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 because the commerce — a godsend for a workforce that used a bullpen sport 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 along 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 exhausting contact among the many 9 balls the Guardians put in play in opposition to the fastball.
In any other case, Flaherty relied on his slider (22 pitches) and curveball (20) — every of which yielded no exhausting 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 begin Sport 1 of a possible postseason sequence, significantly 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 have been to opposite-handed batters.
As Eno Sarris wrote not too long ago for The Athletic, emphasizing the curveball in opposition to lefties has been a key level of emphasis for Flaherty because the commerce. He threw the curveball twice as typically to lefties as he did to righties Sunday. Writes Sarris:
The Dodgers bought a pitcher within the midst of a fantastic season and nonetheless felt the identical, as they upped his curve utilization practically 10 share factors to maintain him profitable. Whereas his numbers with the Dodgers are a little bit bit worse than they have been with the Detroit Tigers, this transformation may need been sensible. They’ve upped the curve utilization in opposition to lefties in LA.
This might’ve been the best transfer as a result of the slugging share by lefties in opposition to Flaherty’s slider has been rising, as much as .406 earlier than he modified groups. After all, he made the change and lefties at the moment are slugging near .700 in opposition to the slider this month. By no means thoughts, it’s the .111 lefty slugging in opposition to 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.
Photograph Credit score: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports activities
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