Jack Flaherty made his Los Angeles Dodgers debut against the Oakland Athletics and led them to a 10-0 victory with a dominant performance, ending a three-game losing streak.
The Dodgers acquired Flaherty as the answer to their search for an impact starting pitcher, and the right-hander proved to be just that.
Flaherty worked six shutout innings, allowing just five hits and one walk while striking out seven. He recorded just the second quality start for the Dodgers since June 26. In that span, only the Miami Marlins have fewer, and every other team has at least six.
He recorded 16 swing and misses and recorded a called strike plus whiff rate of 31%, an elite mark. Of the five hits he gave up, three were on softly-hit balls, while only Seth Brown hit the ball hard against Flaherty.
The A’s did put two rallies together, but Flaherty was able to escape them each time. Flaherty started the game by allowing two singles, but rebounded with a popup and consecutive strikeouts.
In the sixth inning, the A’s loaded the bases with no one out, but Flaherty once again escaped it unscathed, getting two ground outs and a strike out.
The Dodgers scored their first two runs in the third inning, thanks in part to the red-hot bat of Gavin Lux. Cavan Biggio took a walk to start the inning and Teoscar Hernández doubled with two outs on a check swing.
Lux then followed through with a single to drive in a pair of runs and increase his hitting streak to eight games. In his last 15 games, Lux is hitting .378/.463/.689 with three home runs, 12 RBI and eight runs scored.
The Dodgers added some more insurance in the eighth when Jason Heyward worked a walk and Kiké Hernández followed with a double to drive him in. Hernández ended up advancing to third on a throwing error from the A’s, and he came around to score on a single from Andy Pages.
In addition, Shohei Ohtani picked up three stolen bases, becoming the first member of the Dodgers to reach the 30-30 club since Matt Kemp in 2011.
Ohtani’s two stolen bases in the ninth led to another run, and the Dodgers kept it going. Amed Rosario, Will Smith, Jason Heyward, Kiké Hernández and Nick Ahmed all drove in a run in the ninth, while they also scored on a wild pitch.
Michael Kopech worked a scoreless inning in the seventh with a strikeout, and Blake Treinen tossed a perfect eighth inning to rebound from his last outing.
Kiké Hernández pitched the final inning.
Jack Flaherty embracing expectations with Dodgers
With as much uncertainty as there is in the current Dodgers rotation, Flaherty’s presence provides them with a stable, frontend option. The Southern California native attended Harvard-Westlake High School and joined his hometown team that faces plenty of pressure and World Series expectations.
“It’s fun. You want those expectations,” Flaherty said. “You want to be part of a team that has those expectations. That’s what I came up with in St. Louis, of expecting to win, wanting to win, and being a part of that. If they brought me in for that, hopefully I can contribute in as many ways as possible.”
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