One of the bigger moves at the MLB trade deadline is when star pitcher Jack Flaherty was traded from the Detroit Tigers to the Los Angeles Dodgers, bolstering their starting rotation. Flaherty made his season debut with the Dodgers Saturday night where he got the win in dominant fashion against the Oakland Athletics, 10-0, as he speaks after the game about his impressive outing.
In the game, Flaherty threw 99 pitches, where he struck out seven, allowed five hits, and walked one batter while not giving up a run to the Oakland. Afterwards, the 28-year old would say that the only aspect mattered in his debut was having “a chance to help the team win” as after he will be trying “to soak it all in” according to ESPN.
“Anytime you get a chance to help the team win, that's kind of all that matters,” Flaherty said. “That's the important part of it. I'll take the time tonight and kind of try to soak it all in. I'm just excited to be here and have a chance to help this team.”
Flaherty talks getting into rhythm with Dodgers
Flaherty was putting up some really good numbers in his previous team with the Tigers and where including his first win with the Dodgers, he has thrown a 2.80 earned run average (ERA), 140 strikeouts, and now has a 8-5 record. Consequently, the goal for him in his first outing with Los Angeles was finding some chemistry with his new catcher in Will Smith who he praised after the game saying he “did a really good job of making adjustments.”
“It was slowly getting into a rhythm. I think as the game went on, we got into a rhythm,” Flaherty said. “We got better in sync, and that's kind of the nature of the game. And [catcher] Will [Smith] did a really good job of making adjustments.”
If there was one person within the Dodgers ball club that was impressed by Flaherty Saturday in the win against Oakland, it was manager Dave Roberts who liked his “quiet intensity.”
“I thought there was a quiet intensity to him,” Roberts said. “He was very focused, very controlled. I just love the way he used his entire pitch mix.
Flaherty looking to bolster Dodgers rotation
Subsequently, Flaherty started his career with the St. Louis Cardinals for the first seven seasons then was traded to the Baltimore Orioles in 2023, then signed a contract with the Tigers before the start of this year. However, one could have assumed that Flaherty would be on the Dodgers at some point since he is from Burbank, California.
“I've always really had an eye for him, in the sense of being an L.A. guy, having some ties to the Dodgers,” Roberts said via MLB.com. “He's big, he's physical. He's got a good heartbeat, you can see that. And I just think that, for me, you've got to have a horse that you feel can handle a couple innings of stress and still manage to find his way out of it and keep going. He also looks pretty good in a Dodger uniform.”
At any rate, the Dodgers are 64-47 which puts them at the top of the NL West as they look to win the series against the Athletics Sunday evening.
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