Back with Tigers, Flaherty celebrated in return to LA

LOS ANGELES -- The crowd at Dodger Stadium roared as one Dodger after another made the walk from the home dugout to the stage in the middle of the diamond to receive their championship rings. Meanwhile, in the right-field corner, Jack Flaherty watched intently as he did his pre-start stretches. While fans applauded manager Dave Roberts, Flaherty waved his arms -- not to say hello, but to get his body ready to face his former teammates.

“Jack, hometown guy, it was his dream to pitch for the Dodgers, and he delivered. So he’s going to be a friend of mine for life,” Roberts said before the game. “And I couldn’t have been more happy. He was the right person at the right time for our club. And I’m happy that he got family and friends that got to see him in a Dodger uniform.”

Flaherty kept to the task at hand as best he could, just as he said he would. But he knew the emotions were coming.

“I knew,” he said afterwards. “I downplayed it to family and friends, for sure. I've downplayed it a bunch.”

As the ring ceremony was wrapping up, Flaherty ducked into the bullpen beyond the right-field corner to begin his warmups. The rest of the Tigers’ starters followed to watch.

“They always come out and watch me,” he said. “I told them that I appreciated them coming out as early as they did. It kind of settled me down and reminded me everything was just normal.”

Just under six quality innings later, as Tigers manager A.J. Hinch went to the mound to take the ball from Flaherty and give it to Tyler Holton, the emotions came back. As Flaherty made the walk back to the Tigers’ dugout, Tigers and Dodgers fans alike gave him a standing ovation.

“It was unexpected, very much unexpected,” Flaherty said, “especially with the game and the way it was going, tie game. … It means a lot, especially growing up here and spending a lot of time here. It’s special.”

This isn’t just where Flaherty won a World Series with the Dodgers last year, having come over from Detroit in a Trade Deadline deal that brought the Tigers their starting shortstop (Trey Sweeney) and a top catching prospect (Thayron Liranzo). This is where Flaherty attended games as a kid.

“This is where I grew up,” Flaherty said, “fell in love with the game and then got to live out a childhood dream last year in the second half and through the World Series. This is a special place for me.”

That ovation, especially when it happened, brought it home.

The Tigers lost a heartbreaker Friday night, 8-5 in 10 innings, riding a roller coaster of emotions from a two-out, ninth-inning comeback to a two-run lead squandered in extras. But those emotions couldn’t compare to Flaherty, who nearly spoiled his former team’s ring celebration while reminding Tigers fans what they had missed without him in his return outing.

Flaherty missed with his first four pitches, walking Shohei Ohtani. Not only did Flaherty erase him three pitches later with a Mookie Betts double play, he didn’t allow another baserunner -- or a base hit -- until the fifth inning. He took a one-hit shutout into the sixth.

“I don't think it was so much heart rate and adrenaline and more emotion, just everything and being back,” he said. “It kind of felt like my very first time being back here, my very first start in 2018. It was almost out-of-bodyish.

“Those first four to Shohei weren't even close. I was able to get back and make some pitches to Mookie, get a double play and then from there get into a much better rhythm.”

After stranding the bases loaded in the fifth, Flaherty took the mound for the sixth inning supporting a 2-0 lead built on solo homers from his catcher, Dillon Dingler, and one of his World Series foes from last October, Gleyber Torres. Flaherty retired Ohtani on a sharp ground ball to second, taking away his toughest challenge. But Betts got a first-pitch fastball on the outer edge and blooped it into center field, then Freddie Freeman crushed a first-pitch slider deep to center.

Flaherty had seen them do that to so many pitchers last fall. Now it was his turn.

“I love how Jack came out today with all the distractions, all the emotions, and came back with this start,” Hinch said. “He was pretty dominant.”

Similarly, his turn to get his championship ring comes Saturday before the series finale, as the Tigers try to avoid a series sweep.