Dodgers' Jack Flaherty bounces back with strong start in Game 1 of the World Series

LOS ANGELES – Three years ago, Jack Flaherty sat in the stands at the World Series with fellow major leaguer Lucas Giolito and watched Max Fried, their former Harvard-Westlake High teammate, pitch to the Atlanta Braves in their title win in Houston.

Reflecting on it this week, Flaherty admitted he had mixed feelings that night.

“It’s a funny feeling to see that because you’re excited for one of your best friends and you’re incredibly happy for him,” Flaherty said. “At the same time you are also a competitor and you want to be in that situation. You want to be on the field.”

He got his chance Friday night when he started Game 1 of the World Series, this time with Giolito and Fried watching from the stands of Dodger Stadium. Although Flaherty left the mound trailing by one run, he nevertheless delivered the kind of start the Dodgers needed in a match they went on to win 6–3 on Freddie Freeman’s walk-off grand slam.

“Jack threw his tail off,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “He made one bad throw, but he threw great.”

Flaherty gave up a two-run homer to New York Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton on his 90th and final pitch of the night, with one out in the sixth inning, but that was all he allowed. He struck out six and walked one.

“I thought he threw really well,” catcher Will Smith said. “One mistake, Stanton’s little backup curveball. Other than that, he threw very, very well.”

The Dodgers had lost two of Flaherty’s three previous starts this postseason, including an ugly performance in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series against the New York Mets. In that game, Flaherty gave up eight runs in three innings. Afterwards, Roberts said Flaherty had been “in trouble.”

Flaherty’s average fastball velocity during the regular season was 90.3 mph, and against the Mets it dropped to 90.4 mph. Also, Flaherty didn’t get any whiff of 16 knuckle curves causing swings by Mets hitters.

Against the Yankees, Flaherty’s average fastball maxed out at 90.6 mph, and the Yankees whiffed at the knuckle curve on 12 of their 17 strikes.

“It was definitely sharper,” Smith said of Flaherty’s stuff, compared to the previous game against the Mets. “Putting the ball in good places. Executing pitches. Definitely a lot better. Kind of like the first game of the NLCS.”

Flaherty pitched seven scoreless innings in the NLCS opener against the Mets.

Before taking the ball against the Yankees, he acknowledged that he would face a dangerous lineup full of hitters who don’t swing at pitches outside the zone, and can hammer those in the zone.

The most dangerous hitter of them all is Aaron Judge, the likely MVP of the American League.

Flaherty knocked him out three times.

“The judge is incredible,” Flaherty said. “I was able to make some good pitches. Some days it goes like this. I made some good pitches and it worked out. We’ll figure out next time how to get him out in different ways because that’s a good hitter who’s going to make adjustments. What he has done during his career and what he has done over the course of this year is unprecedented. You have to make really good pitches. You take today and kind of squirrel it away and remember it, but remember it’s one day and he’ll be ready for the next.

Flaherty wasn’t as good against the other two members of the Yankees’ dangerous trio.

Juan Soto, who bats for Judge, singled and walked three times against Flaherty. He was on base when Stanton hit the two-run homer that gave the Yankees a 2-1 lead in the sixth.

“If you make a mistake, Giancarlo puts a good swing on the ball, which he’s done basically all postseason and his entire career,” Flaherty said. “So you’d like that one back, but you’ve got to go out and get ready for the next one. So it was good. Adjustments have been made, and now we have to make a few more and just assess today and go through it, take the good ones, and then just – yeah, just one pitch at a time on the next one.”

Originally published: October 25, 2024 at 9:03 PM