TORONTO – Manager AJ Hinch wanted to make sure Jack Flaherty didn’t bring any extra baggage across the border. And we aren’t talking about shoes or clothes.
We’re talking about any residue, emotional or physical, from his last couple of rough starts.
“Just get back to basics of what makes him good,” Hinch said before the game. “Spin, strike one, being in attack mode. He’s really good. So just clear his mind from the frustrations of the last couple of starts.
“New challenge, different lineup. It’s important for him not to carry previous starts into the current one.”
Flaherty responded with his best outing in two weeks, allowing only a two-run homer by Daulton Varsho in 5.2 strong innings and the Tigers hung on to beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 in the first of three at Rogers Centre.
He was one pitch away from finishing the sixth inning twice. He got both Jonatan Clase and Bo Bichette to take 95-mph fastballs for called third strikes.
He got Vladimir Guerrero, Jr., to take two four-seamers for strikes before Guerrero topped a curveball that went 41 feet for an infield single.
Flaherty got two quick strikes on Varsho, too, and put a 95.7 mph fastball down and toward the outside corner. It wasn’t a bad pitch but Varsho launched it over the left field wall.
That one swing certainly didn’t diminish Flaherty’s bounce back performance.
His fastball command was sharp and he established it early, throwing strikes with six of eight four-seamers in the first inning. He was sticking it at the top and bottom rails of the strike zone, as well as dotting both the corners.
With the fastball established, Flaherty was able to work his knuckle-curve and slider in advantageous counts. He got five whiffs on 14 swings with the knuckle-curve and 21 called strikes with his four-seamer.
It was encouraging, too, that he hit maximum velocity with his four-seamer (96 mph) in the sixth inning with his pitch count climbing to 90.
Flaherty also got some stellar defensive support. With one out and a runner on in the second inning, Nathan Lukes hit a bullet to the right-center gap.
Center fielder Javier Báez, who had another big night, tracked it at full speed and made a sensational diving catch. He then calmly got up and fired a strike to first base to double off the runner Addison Barger.
Two of the four base runners Flaherty allowed before the sixth were erased in double-plays.
Pretty impressive on a night where the roof was open at Rogers Centre and balls were flying.
Riley Greene was the offensive catalyst for the Tigers. He ambushed a first-pitch curveball from Blue Jays’ starter Bowden Francis and launched it over the high wall in left center.
It was his 11th home run.
In the fifth inning, Greene lined a two-run double into the right-field corner.
In the last two games, Greene’s doubled twice, homered twice and knocked in five runs.
Zach McKinstry, who hadn’t homered since April 8, hit his second of the season into the right field seats in the fourth.
The Blue Jays made it a 4-3 game in the seventh off reliever Brenan Hanifee.
Barger hit a line drive over Báez’s head in center. The ball hit off the light blue line at the top of the dark blue wall. The umpire signaled home run and Báez immediately pointed to the dugout to challenge.
The Tigers did challenge and Báez was correct. It was a double. Barger ended up scoring anyway, though, on a single by Myles Straw.
Báez went ahead and got that run back himself.
He poleaxed a 94-mph fastball at the top of zone from reliever Chad Green and sent it 408 feet to left. It was his sixth home run.
Bichette answered back, hitting a solo home run off Tommy Kahnle in the eighth.
With Will Vest pitching three high-leverage innings Tuesday and Wednesday, Hinch summoned Beau Brieske in the ninth.
Brieske got the first two outs in the ninth before giving up a pair of two-strike singles to Straw and Michael Stefanic. But he got the save nevertheless, getting Ernie Clement to line one back to him.