Flaherty's 10-K outing boosts beleaguered Tigers pitching staff

DETROIT -- Jack Flaherty was just about to begin his pre-start routine Wednesday when the Tigers announced that fellow starter Framber Valdez had accepted a five-game suspension for hitting Trevor Story on Tuesday. It didn’t have any impact on Flaherty’s outing, but it whittled the injury-ravaged Tigers rotation to two starting pitchers for this week and raised the importance of Flaherty to find his better form after three middling outings.

Detroit could well end up with four bullpen games in an eight-day stretch. The last thing it needed was another Flaherty early exit essentially forcing another.

In that sense, Wednesday was a win. On the scoreboard, it was another loss. In the stats book, it was historic.

Never in the 126-year history of the Tigers had their pitching allowed four or fewer hits, struck out 15 or more batters and lost the game. That they did so on Wednesday took a combination of defensive miscues and an offensive struggle that included four hits of their own, none of them with runners in scoring position.

Wednesday’s 4-0 defeat not only completed a Red Sox series sweep and a 2-4 Tigers homestand, it continued the hangover that has seemingly enveloped the club since Monday’s news that Tarik Skubal needed surgery to remove loose bodies from his left elbow. Add in Valdez’s suspension and injuries to Gleyber Torres and Will Vest, not to mention Javier Báez and Casey Mize injuries last week, plus the slow rehab of Justin Verlander, and the buzz of the homestand was almost as much about who isn’t playing as it was about how the Tigers are playing.

Nowhere is that felt more than in the rotation, now down to Flaherty and Keider Montero. The Tigers didn’t just need innings out of Flaherty, who hadn’t lasted four innings in a start since April 15; they needed hope.

As Flaherty walked off the mound, having struck out the side in order in the fifth inning, his body language said it all. He pumped his first after sending a 94.7 mph fastball past Wilyer Abreu on his 96th and final pitch. Compared with two starts ago, when every ball in play in Cincinnati seemed to bring a what-now look from Flaherty, this was a completely different personality.

Compared with Flaherty’s previous three starts -- 12 runs (10 earned) on 13 hits, four of them homers, over nine innings with 11 walks and 11 strikeouts -- this was a completely different pitcher.

“There's a lot to build off of in the way that I was able to command and get ahead and stay ahead of guys,” Flaherty said.

It’s a silver lining in a series that saw the Tigers largely outplayed by a previously struggling Red Sox club. But with Flaherty, it’s a silver lining that could pay off.

“I believe in Flaherty,” said bench coach George Lombard, who served as manager Wednesday in place of the suspended A.J. Hinch.

Flaherty was dominant on the bookends of his outing. He struck out Boston’s first five batters, including the side in order on sliders in an 11-pitch first inning. He struck out five of his final six hitters, including that same top third of the order in the fifth inning. His one ball in play in between those last five strikeouts was a Carlos Narváez ground ball that got under third baseman Colt Keith for a two-out, two-base error that scored two runs for the game’s final margin.

Keith also deflected a Marcelo Mayer ground ball for a leadoff single in the third. Mayer scored two batters later on the only hit from either side with runners in scoring position, a Caleb Durbin double, one pitch after Spencer Torkelson couldn’t run down a Durbin foul ball in front of the Red Sox's dugout.

That was also the only extra-base hit off Flaherty, a marked contrast from his recent home-run tendencies.

Abreu’s whiff in the fifth earned Flaherty his first game with double-digit strikeouts since Aug. 9, 2024, his second start for the Dodgers after being traded by Detroit. His last double-digit-strikeout game with the Tigers was April 30, 2024, when he fanned his first seven Cardinals batters on his way to a 14-strikeout performance.

Flaherty’s 14 whiffs were near-evenly spread across his four-seam fastball (five), his curveball (five) and his slider (four), a reflection of a balanced arsenal.

“A lot better job of getting ahead and filling up the strike zone, being on the attack more,” Flaherty said. “I felt like the command of my fastball was a lot better.”

Just as important, his lone walk was a four-pitch pass to Ceddanne Rafaela, who scored in the fourth. He had just two other three-ball counts in his outing. It was his first game all season without multiple walks.