Jack Flaherty hasn’t been bad for the Dodgers since coming over in a blockbuster deadline-day trade last month.
But, five starts into the hometown product’s L.A. tenure, Flaherty hasn’t met the loftiest of expectations, either — by his demanding standards, or the ones needed by his short-handed team.
If the postseason started tomorrow, Flaherty would likely be the Dodgers’ Game 1 starter, given the continued absences of Tyler Glasnow and Yoshinobu Yamamoto in the club’s banged-up rotation.
That’s why, even though Flaherty looked solid in a six-inning, three-run outing against the high-powered Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday night, it wasn’t enough to save the Dodgers from a 3-2 defeat.
And, just as he has for much of his short time with the Dodgers so far, the veteran right-hander came away looking less than satisfied.
Flaherty avoided a true worst-case scenario Tuesday, staying in the game after taking a fifth-inning comebacker from Colton Cowser off his right throwing wrist.
In the at-bat right before it, though, Flaherty made his one big mistake of the night, giving up a go-ahead two-run home run to Baltimore’s No. 9 hitter, Ramón Urías, on a slider that stayed up just enough to catch the bottom of the strike zone.
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This has been a common theme of Flaherty’s first month as a Dodger, in which he has gone 3-1 with a 3.49 ERA — a slight decline from the stellar 2.95 ERA he posted over the first four months of the season with the Detroit Tigers.
None of his starts have been poor, with Flaherty working into the sixth inning in four of the five.
But just about all of them have been a pitch or two away from being great, save the shutout six-inning gem he spun against the rebuilding Oakland Athletics in his team debut on Aug. 3.
Granted, the Dodgers’ lineup — even with Freddie Freeman, who missed the game while nursing his broken right middle finger — could have bailed Flaherty out Tuesday.
After Ryan O’Hearn opened the scoring on a solo home run in the second inning, they managed to erase the early deficit on a Miguel Rojas sacrifice fly in the bottom of the second and Teoscar Hernández two-out RBI single in the third.
From there, however, the club wasted chances.
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Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Hernández came up empty in a two-on, no-out opportunity in the fifth. Betts was later stranded at second after a single and steal in the eighth inning, with both Hernández and Will Smith going down on strikes. Then, with two on and two out in the ninth, Chris Taylor gave one a ride to left, but watched it die short of the track to end the game.
Freeman rests finger
For the second time in the last couple of weeks, Freeman was not in the starting lineup on Tuesday, getting a day off to rest the right middle finger he broke a couple weeks ago on a ground ball that jammed his finger.
After initially getting hurt on Aug. 17, then sitting out the next day’s game while awaiting tests to diagnose the injury, Freeman had started in each of the Dodgers’ last six contests, resuming his everyday role at first base since doctors said his fracture — which he noted was non-displaced — couldn’t be hurt more.
In that time, however, Freeman’s numbers had plummeted. The slugger was just three for 23 in his last six games. As a result, his season-long batting average dipped from .292 to .284, which would be a lower mark than he’s had in any season since 2015.
Dave Roberts said the Dodgers didn’t consider putting Freeman on the injured list. But, the manager said there is a “chance” that Freeman could sit another day or two; though he might be available off the bench.
“I just don’t want this thing to linger,” Roberts said. “So if we can get it to calm down, we’ll be in a better spot.”
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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