SAN DIEGO -- Every starting pitcher has at least a few bad outings during a season. It’s the nature of a sport in which starters typically take the mound 30-plus times between April and October. They’re just not going to be at their absolute best every time out.
Every pitcher handles the adversity differently, too. Some try to quickly move past a tough start.
That’s not Jack Flaherty’s style.
After allowing seven runs in three difficult innings during the Orioles’ 10-3 loss to the Padres on Tuesday night at Petco Park, Flaherty made it clear he isn’t going to shove this night to the back of his mind. The 27-year-old right-hander will try to use the experience to get better.
“I don’t believe in flush and forget,” said Flaherty, who allowed five runs in the first inning and two in the second. “I take it, and it doesn’t mean you have to reinvent everything, you just understand what happened and what went on and you make adjustments from there. But it’s not always about reinventing the wheel, you’ve just got to make sometimes the small adjustments.”
The Orioles are hopeful the between-starts work Flaherty plans to put in will lead to better results down the stretch. Because there are multiple reasons the club needs him to contribute over the next two months -- and they’re the same reasons why Baltimore acquired him from St. Louis just ahead of the Aug. 1 Trade Deadline.
Flaherty and Kyle Gibson are the only starting pitchers on the O’s roster with postseason experience. They know what it’s like to pitch in the loud, high-stakes environment of October.
The two righties are also two of only three starters who have pitched more than 132 big league innings in a season before (along with Cole Irvin). They can be workhorses, and they can provide strong outings in the process, even though they each struggled their last times out. (Gibson allowed nine runs in 5 1/3 innings in a loss at Seattle on Friday.)
Baltimore is carefully managing the workloads of its young starters. Tyler Wells has been taking a quick breather at Double-A Bowie for the past two weeks. Plus, the Orioles have pushed their rotation to six pitchers -- reinserting Irvin -- to keep the young trio of Kyle Bradish, Dean Kremer and Grayson Rodriguez fresh in the midst of a pennant race.
But Flaherty couldn’t eat innings on Tuesday, when he needed 84 pitches to navigate three frames, including 34 in the first and 39 in the second.
The Padres struck for five runs in the first via a bases-loaded walk by Jake Cronenworth and a grand slam by longtime Orioles tormentor Gary Sánchez (whose 21 career homers vs. Baltimore are his most against any opponent).
“After you have a long first, you still have a lot of ground to make up for,” Flaherty said.
Flaherty again labored in the second, when San Diego constructed a two-out rally featuring a double by Fernando Tatis Jr., a walk by Juan Soto and a two-run double from Manny Machado.
Flaherty retired the final four batters he faced, as he worked a 1-2-3 third. But it wasn’t enough to salvage his short night.
“Don’t execute against guys like that, things happen,” Flaherty said. “It wasn’t just one thing.”
Manager Brandon Hyde believes Flaherty’s biggest issue was a lack of command.
“Tough time landing his breaking balls,” Hyde said. “It seemed like a lot of breaking balls were kind of down and out of the zone, and everything was just to the extension side and they got enough of the bat on the ball.”
In Flaherty’s Orioles debut on Aug. 3 at Toronto, he showed how effective he can be, striking out eight over six innings of one-run ball. He was also solid in his first Camden Yards start last Wednesday, when he recorded eight more K’s while allowing three runs over five innings against Houston.
That’s clear support for Flaherty’s claim of Tuesday being “just a bad night.” He has a long track record showing he can have big league success, too.
Baltimore (74-46) is counting on getting the strong version of Flaherty back soon. Otherwise, its rotation could face more challenges into September and potentially October.
“Just didn’t execute,” Flaherty said. “Don’t execute, that’s what happens.”