CLEVELAND, Ohio — The last time Jack Flaherty held the ball in October, he was wearing Dodger blue, standing on the mound with a season in the balance. He played a part in Los Angeles’ charge through October and raised the trophy that Detroit could only watch from afar.
Now the ball is his again on Thursday afternoon after the American League wild card series was extended by Cleveland’s 6-1 victory on Wednesday.
This time Flaherty’s in a Tigers uniform. This time with their season on the line in a win-or-go-home Game 3.
“He’s another guy that I keep mentioning leaving everything out on the field in the competition,” manager A.J. Hinch said of Flaherty. “He’s good at it. He knows what that feeling’s like to have your season on the line.
“So anytime I hand him the ball, I think he pitches with that mentality. I appreciate that about him throughout the season.”
Before Flaherty was traded to the Dodgers ahead of last year’s trade deadline, he was on Detroit. He built relationships and an approach that tethered him back to Motor City.
He used his stint in the Hills to reestablish his value before free agency. Instead of moving on, he returned. The difference this season is not just contractual, it’s cultural.
Hinch doesn’t see Flaherty as an outsider. He sees him as a competitor wired for this stage.
“I don’t think of him any differently,” Hinch said. “I’ve always thought of Jack as coming to Detroit … to try to make him the best pitcher he can be.
“He shows up to work every day to win. He got to taste that at the highest level last year, on the team that was the last team standing. And that type of experience, I think, is incredible for our group now.”
Flaherty has built his reputation on being “crazy prepared,” as Hinch puts it. Meticulous with his routine. Relentless in his scouting. Unafraid of the moment. That routine has carried him through the valleys of injuries earlier in his career and positioned him now as a trusted option when everything is at stake.
Against Cleveland, that preparation matters. The Guardians’ offense thrives on contact, forcing pitchers into mistakes by stringing together long at-bats.
“Swing decisions and scaring pitchers into the zone,” Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt said about the Guardians’ approach. “Lay off the borderline pitches, they have to come after you.
“… Back against the wall. Back’s still against the wall tomorrow. We’ll come out ready to go and so will they. It will be another dog fight tomorrow. I guarantee it.”
Flaherty’s ability to command his fastball early in counts and lean on his slider late is the separator.
But to Flaherty, Cleveland’s just in the way of getting back to the top of the mountain.
On March 30, at Dodger Stadium, Flaherty received his first ring. He hasn’t looked at it since.
“I mean, it’s everything,” Flaherty said about winning. “The reason you get out of bed in the morning is to go out and have a chance to win no matter where you’re at. To have a chance to do it with these guys is all the more special.
“Receiving it and having that moment there, it was great. It was awesome. But I haven’t looked at the thing in five months. It’s been put away. So it’s been about moving forward and moving on with these guys and competing with them every single day and giving them everything I have.”
For Detroit, that’s exactly the mindset they wanted to see. The ring wasn’t motivation for the team.
The fire never left after last year’s playoff exit. The best part, the Tigers team is now set up for revenge against the Cleveland team that ended their season a year ago.
“I don’t think a fire was ever out, so I don’t think we had to light it,” Hinch said when asked if having to watch Flaherty receive his ring lit something under his team. ”If anything, experiencing the postseason last year resonated with our guys that you want to be in all these postseasons and give yourself a puncher’s chance to advance to the next round and the next round.
“There are a few guys in our clubhouse who have run the whole race, all the way to the final game of the season. And that experience is unlike any other one in this sport, and so I think our guys have always been driven. I think they’re starting to understand what’s at stake.”
That’s what makes Flaherty’s start so consequential. He embodies both the scars of failed opportunities and the clarity of what it takes to finish the journey. He knows how quickly a playoff run can unravel and how rare the opportunity is to extend it.
On Thursday, he’ll have another chance at advancing deeper into the postseason. The Tigers don’t need Flaherty to be perfect. They need him to be himself: prepared, poised, unshaken by the weight of elimination. That’s why his presence in this moment feels less like fate and more like design.
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