Flaherty's stellar debut provides jolt for Dodgers
Sonja Chen
@sonjamchenOAKLAND -- As the clock ticked down at Tuesday's Trade Deadline, the Dodgers made one final move by bringing home arguably the top available pitcher in Jack Flaherty. With injuries ravaging the L.A. rotation -- and the roster at large -- the arrival of a fresh arm was expected to bring a much-needed jolt to the team.
Taking the big league mound clad in Dodger Blue for the first time, Flaherty delivered for his hometown team. The Burbank native who grew up rooting for the Dodgers tossed six scoreless innings on Saturday night at the Coliseum, helping his new club even the series with a 10-0 victory over the A's.
"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 struck out seven and scattered five hits and one walk, throwing 99 pitches. Gavin Lux's two-run single in the third ended up being all the run support he needed, although the Dodgers poured on eight runs in the final two innings -- including a six-run ninth -- to seal the deal.
"Tonight started with Jack Flaherty just getting a really good start," manager Dave Roberts said. "But you can see kind of a little bit of relief and guys having fun on the bench, taking good at-bats and really pouring it on and allowed for us to use Kik¨¦ [Hern¨˘ndez] in the ninth."
It was an ideal time for Flaherty to play stopper, as L.A. had lost three in a row and was 1-5 on its road trip through Houston, San Diego and Oakland entering Saturday. With the win over the A's, the Dodgers (64-47) maintained their 4 1/2-game lead over the Padres (60-52), who are a half-game ahead of the D-backs (59-52).
It had been 10 days since Flaherty's previous game action -- which "felt so long," he said -- as he had been scheduled to start Monday for the Tigers before being scratched in anticipation of being traded. The 28-year-old right-hander had to work around some traffic early on before settling into a groove, retiring 11 of 12 batters between the second and fifth innings.
The lone batter to reach in that span was Seth Brown, whose 106.3 mph comebacker struck Flaherty on his right lower leg in the fourth. There was a brief delay as Roberts and an athletic trainer checked on Flaherty, but he stayed in the game after throwing a couple of warmup pitches and promptly struck out Abraham Toro to end the inning.
With Flaherty joining the team at a critical time in the season, what Roberts and the Dodgers' coaching staff can learn about their new starter is just about as important as the results he gets. They got a good look at how he responds under pressure with a stress test in his sixth and final inning.
After the A's loaded the bases with nobody out on an error, a bloop single and a walk, Flaherty was able to pull off quite the escape act. By inducing a forceout at the plate, a swinging strikeout and a groundout, Flaherty ensured that the number of runs allowed in his Dodgers debut would match the one on his back -- 0.
"He knows how to pitch," A's manager Mark Kotsay said. "He pitched out of that jam in the sixth. That was Dave showing confidence in him to leave him out there."
Following a couple of down seasons, Flaherty signed a one-year deal with Detroit in the offseason and enjoyed a resurgent stretch before Tuesday's Trade Deadline. He posted a 2.95 ERA across 18 starts with the Tigers before being dealt to the Dodgers in exchange for catcher/first baseman Thayron Liranzo and shortstop Trey Sweeney.
Roberts and the team certainly like what they saw from Flaherty his first time out.
"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. "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."