The Los Angeles Dodgers leaned on their bullpen to carry the load through the postseason to this point, but in their World Series matchup with the New York Yankees, the starting rotation has a tall order to carry.
That process begins with Jack Flaherty starting Game 1 on Friday. Flaherty has made three starts this postseason to mixed results.
After allowing four runs in 5.1 innings against the San Diego Padres in Game 2 of the National League Division Series, he tossed seven shutout innings in Game 1 of the NL Championship Series. But Flaherty followed that by struggling mightily against the New York Mets in Game 5.
The Dodgers nevertheless are confident in their right-hander, who in turn is heading into the World Series with his same mindset from the regular season.
“Kind of like you would with any other start during the regular season,” Flaherty said of improving from a subpar outing. “Keep that same work ethic and same approach to everything, like I do during the season.
“For me, every game in the season is the biggest game of the year, so it doesn’t change going into the playoffs or World Series. The mindset stays the same and the adjustments start to start, or pitch to pitch, are always a little different between starts.
“Some you’ve got to tweak a little bit, some you’ve got to tweak a little more. But you don’t have to reinvent everything. It’s just figuring out what those small adjustments are. These couple days off to dive into things and look at it have been good. It’s about figuring it out and keeping the same approach you’ve had all year.”
Flaherty’s velocity was down across the board in Game 5 of the NLCS, resulting in extremely hittable pitches and no ability to command the strike zone. A number of factors were at play, and Flaherty believes an overall funk was the reason he fell out of tune against the Mets.
“Usually it’s just timing,” he noted. “I think going throughout this year, I’ve had some starts go like that, where it’s been up and down, and I was able to make corrections going into the next one. Maybe not right in that moment because sometimes it comes down to timing and the way everything is in sync, and sometimes on some of those fastballs, you start pushing the ball or your arm kind of gets lost in space and you don’t get the same drive behind it.
“Or for me, my lower half gets off a little bit. At a certain point, when you get into games like that and you don’t feel quite in sync, you’ve just got to compete and give everything you’ve got no matter what your stuff is. So at that point I stop paying attention to velocity and stuff, and just try to execute with what I’ve got.
“Sometimes you’re able to make those adjustments in-game, and sometimes you’re not and you just go out and compete and save those adjustments for in between. It usually just boils down to timing and trying to get the arm and whole body to sync up. That’s been one of the focuses over the last couple days. It’s just doing that, get some work in the bullpen [Wednesday] and get ready for Friday.”
Going into Game 1 of the 2024 World Series, Flaherty adjusting to the Yankees is much about limiting the mistake pitches. Attempting to pitch with diminished stuff will get him beat, but Flaherty is determined to avoid such a letdown outing.
“Diving into some film, diving into some pitch selection, different things of that nature,” Flaherty said. “Rewatching that game, I felt like the game sped up on me that inning. I was multiple times one pitch away from getting out of it where it’s still either 3-1 or 5-1, instead of it getting to 8-1.
“I gave up the homer to Pete in the first, he puts a good swing on a ball, they get some more guys on, we get out of it to keep it right there. Put up a zero the next inning and I’m a pitch or two away from that inning being different, and that’s kind of the way this game goes sometimes.
“Usually you look at it, and you’re one pitch away here or there from that game being a little different. Honey came in and did an unbelievable job the rest of that game. I think it just comes down to looking at it and understanding it was right there, and if we can control a couple more things, I’ll be in a little bit better of a spot.”
Jack Flaherty aware of Yankees lineup
As far as game planning for Yankees sluggers Juan Soto, Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton, Flaherty isn’t one to only focus on facing stars.
“I don’t think you can look at anybody else as less dangerous,” Flaherty said. “You look at our lineup top to bottom, especially when you’re able to get those guys on towards the bottom of the order and set it up for the top, that’s where you get into some tougher situations and you’ve got to pitch through traffic with those guys coming up.
“It’s about executing your game plan, it’s about treating every hitter the same. Go out and attack them, try to execute your game plan, get ahead and stay ahead. Not make things too complicated or too hard.”
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