Detroit — The situation wasn’t critical. This wasn’t a make-or-break start for Jack Flaherty by any means.
But after a couple of clunkers (15 runs in seven innings in his last two), some progress back toward his norm would be welcomed.
“We expect him to be really good tonight,” manager AJ Hinch said before the game. “But first and foremost, we’re not riding the rollercoaster based on his performances. We’re trying to get him in a more consistent place to make his pitches.
“He hasn’t executed at the level that he can, but today could be the first step back toward that. Whether it’s a mini step forward or a giant step forward.”
How about a medium step?
Flaherty delivered a quality start Wednesday, six solid innings, but he was done one better by Athletics’ Jacob Lopez.
The 27-year-old lefty with a 7-foot-1 extension and a quirky arm angle subdued the Tigers on three hits over six innings to help the A’s even the series with a 3-0 win at Comerica Park.
“Progress, yeah,” said Flaherty, who struck out seven over his six innings. “Just got outpitched. That guy over there threw a helluva game.”
The Tigers reach the mid-point of the schedule with a 50-31 record and a nine game lead atop the American League Central Division.
“It’s been great,” Riley Greene said. “We’ve had a lot of fun and won some baseball games and played some good baseball. But it’s in the past. We still have a whole half a season to play. So, just stay focused on winning games every day.”
Flaherty got 19 whiffs on 42 swings and had 13 called strikes with his four-seam fastball, an indication that his stuff was crisp. He also used all five of his pitches, something he hadn’t done in his previous two starts.
“It was just kind of like, let’s throw it all,” Flaherty said. “And at certain points it was working. So like, if you got it, you might as well use it.”
He set that tone immediately. His first five pitches – in a clean six-pitch first inning – were four-seam, changeup, knuckle-curve, slider and sinker.
“There was some good and some things that frustrated him and ultimately hurt him in this game,” Hinch said. “The walks are troubling. He lost the feel for the strike zone a little bit, but I’m proud of him for snapping back in to it and getting as deep as he did.
“There was some good and there was some things to continue to chip away at to get the better version of him.”
The one ugly number on Flaherty’s stat line was the four in the walk category, which he paid a dear price for in the third inning.
The three Athletics runs came off one mighty swing of the bat by first baseman Nick Kurtz, who sent a changeup from Flaherty 438 feet into the second level of shrubs beyond the center-field wall.
The blast was preceded by a pair of walks and one missed tag at second base (more on that in a minute).
“I have to do a better job of eliminating the walks,” said Flaherty, who has walked 15 in his last four starts. “I talked to AJ about it. You’re in command of everything, especially the way the first inning started and you go out and walk the first guy in the next inning, noncompetitive. Just kind of weird.”
Not all walks are created equal, of course. When he walked Brent Rooker with a runner at second and two outs in the third, that was more of a pick-your-poison moment.
“That one made sense,” Flaherty said. “That’s a high-leverage spot and that’s the (main) guy in their order. But then I make a mistake to the next guy and he makes me pay for it. But you also understand that you walked (Lawrence) Butler to start the inning.”
The galling part of the inning came before the walk to Rooker and Kurtz’s homer. Flaherty struck out Jacob Wilson for the second out and catcher Dillon Dingler fired a strike to second base to thwart a base-stealing attempt by Butler.
The ball beat Butler and second baseman Gleyber Torres slapped the tag down, but Butler evaded it with a swim move and second base umpire Scott Barry called him safe. The Tigers challenged the call and at least one replay angle seemed to show that Butler’s front hand came off the bag while Torres was still applying the tag.
But replay officials ruled it inconclusive and Butler was safe.
“You just have to live with the result,” Dingler said. “I knew it was going to be a close one and obviously when they have it called on the field and they take that long to look at it (in the replay center in New York), you think the call is going to stand.
“It would’ve been nice, but you can’t do anything about it.”
That was the same helplessness Hinch was feeling in the dugout.
“I don’t know what happened there,” he said. “We talked about it. They couldn’t confirm it but they couldn’t overturn it. That’s the most frustrating part. It is what it is. We still had plenty of inning to get out of it. But, yeah, it’s a frustrating call.
“Whatever you are looking at, whatever side you’re on — you’re going to see a non-tag if you’re in their dugout and you’re going to see him go off the base and Gleyber get the glove on his jersey if you are in ours. It’s in the eye of the beholder and in the eyes of New York, they couldn’t do either one.”
The gut-punch was the Kurtz homer. Flaherty left a 1-1 changeup toward the bottom of the strike zone but in the middle of the plate and the ball left his bat at 108 mph.
When asked if he was bothered by the pitch selection (his fourth best pitch) or the location, Flaherty said a little bit of both.
“We went back and looked at my St. Louis start last year (14 strikeouts in 6.2 scoreless innings) and kind of went with it, like throw the whole kitchen sink at them,” he said. “We kind of took that approach today and got burned. (The pitch) was pulled (over the heart of the plate) and the height of it, but if it’s out and away, maybe it’s a different result.”
Still, on the whole, given the effectiveness of his fastball both up in the zone and down, given his willingness to use all five pitches, given that his slider was as good as it’s been all year, especially to right-handed hitters and given that he was moving down the mound as well as he has this month, it was an encouraging outing.
“He’s going to go home not feeling great about it, just because of the walks and the home run,” Hinch said. “But the season is a journey and it’s about chipping away at everything you do. You’re never going to be perfect. You’re never going to feel perfect. You are never going to, start by start, put everything together.
“So you grab the good out of it and challenge yourself to get back to work and go after the next one.”
@cmccosky
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