The final week of the regular season is upon us and all eyes will be directed to the city of Cleveland for the Tigers and Guardians series. Tigers Melanated Mound Marauder, starter Jack Flaherty will make his final and most important start of the season on Wednesday.
Jack Flaherty Making Key Starts Against Cleveland Guardians As AL Central Race Comes Down To The Wire
Detroit and Cleveland are fighting for the top spot in the American League Division, and it could possibly come down to the final game of the season. Last week these two faced off in a three-game series and Cleveland came to the Motor City and took care of business, sweeping the Tigers to gain ground in the division.
Flaherty’s last start came against the Guardians, and the veteran was solid despite the team suffering a loss. He went five innings giving up one earned run, allowing three hits and striking out four. Detroit’s offense could not produce any runs, suffering the 4-0 loss, which gave Flaherty his 14th loss of the season.
Despite his record, Flaherty has shown positive signs as a starter in Detroit’s rotation. And he’s stepped up in big games.
“He made the biggest pitches at the biggest moments,” manager A.J. Hinch said after Flaherty’s start last week. “When he was able to get Manzardo out with the bases loaded, that was just as pivotal to the game staying a game at that moment as you can get. The fact that he could reach back a little bit and find the finish fastball in that moment felt like that was going to be the push to get us in a better position, because it kept us in the game.”
On the season, Flaherty has an 8-14 record with a 4.60 ERA and 182 strikeouts.
One thing about Flaherty, he’s a competitor and he’s going to go out there and compete every pitch.
“You have to be in control when it comes down to making pitches,” Flaherty said. “But you’re just trying to gather all that emotion and go out and compete.”
He’ll look to have a similar performance tomorrow like the outing he had back on September 10 against the Yankees. Detroit dominated the Yankees in that game, cruising to an 11-1 victory. Flaherty went five scoreless innings, allowing just two hits and striking out seven. There’s a lot on the line for the Tigers and Flaherty is well aware of that. So don’t be surprised if you see him go as long as he can tomorrow. The last time the Tigers won the division was back in 2014. Coming into the year, Detroit were favorites to be at the top of the division, and for a majority of the season they were there, with a sizable lead. Now it’s crunch time and Detroit knows what’s at stake.
“Listen, this is an incredible stretch of games in front of us to play our way into the playoffs,” Hinch said. “I mean, this is what we play the whole season for. So is it excitable? Of course. It’s pressure-packed. This is playoff baseball. I don’t think you have to concede to that.”
