Last season, Jack Flaherty made only nine appearances on the mound as he dealt with injuries throughout the season.
That is not the case this year. The St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher will make his 20th start of the season this afternoon as the Cardinals take on the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Flaherty has put together some solid outings this season. He has a 7-6 record with a 4.39 ERA and 102 strikeouts.
The past two seasons Flaherty had to miss time because he continuously got bit by the injury bug. This year, we’ve had the chance to see Flaherty out there making appearances on a consistent basis, which is a great sign.
His 19 appearances this season are the most he’s made in a season since 2019, where he appeared and started in 33 games.
Flaherty has spent his entire career with the Cardinals and there’s certainly been some bumps along the ride, but he’s been able to battle through adversity and continue to keep a positive mindset throughout his career. The 27-year-old leads the team in wins and is second in strikeouts.
Flaherty Piling The Wins Up In July
The former 2014 first round pick has put together some impressive performances this month. He has a 3-1 record with a 2.55 ERA and will have the chance to pick up win No. 8 on the season.
Flaherty won his first three starts of the month and had back-to-back starts where he did not allow a run.
On July 6th, he showcased how well his stuff is against the Miami Marlins. Flaherty went six and two third innings of scoreless baseball and struck out five.
“It starts the second you cross that [first-base] line, from coming out of the dugout and attacking from pitch one,” Flaherty said in an mlb.com article after his outing against Miami. “The goal every time is to see how many first-pitch strikes you can get, but really it’s just about setting the tone. … You can’t really coast into the game; you’ve got to make pitches right away.”
Flaherty’s teammates know how effective he can be on the mound, and they know he has what it takes to be a dominant pitcher.
“Jack has elite stuff, and for him it’s just about being as consistent as possible,” Nolan Arenado said. “When Jack is consistent, he’s just as good as anybody out there. He pitched a great game, and we really needed it, right? We lost a tough game yesterday and we were facing [Eury Pérez], who is really good. And we needed Jack to be really good, and he was.”
Cardinals Need Flaherty And Manager Knows It
Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol was pleased to see that competitive nature from Flaherty during his performance against Miami.
“It was fun to watch Jack compete, because he was into every pitch,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. “He pounded the zone with the fastball, pitched in and got some sinkers for broken-bat outs, and he stranded the two leadoff doubles. … The overall competition was what we wanted to see.”
The key word with Flaherty is consistency. If he can be consistent and go out, set the tone, and take command, the sky’s the limit for this brother.
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