![\"Baseball](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/TMD-L-TigersCubs-0608-02.jpg\")
Detroit Tigers’ Javier Baez celebrates with second baseman Gleyber Torres (25) after a win over the Chicago Cubs in a baseball game Sunday, June 8, 2025, in Detroit. (DUANE BURLESON \u2014\u00a0AP Photo)<\/p>\nDETROIT \u2013 None of this is new for Jack Flaherty. He\u2019s pitched in the game\u2019s biggest cathedrals and he\u2019s pitched on the game\u2019s biggest stages over the course of his career. But just because it\u2019s not new doesn\u2019t mean it ever gets old.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was special,\u201d he said, after he pitched six scoreless, two-hit innings to help the Tigers beat the Cubs 4-0 and win another series before a fired-up crowd of 40,343 at Comerica Park Sunday. \u201cAnytime you fill a ballpark out for a whole series, it\u2019s a lot of fun and it elevates our play. It\u2019s just a lot of fun to be a part of.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s great to play in front of these fans. They\u2019ve been great all season and they\u2019re going to be great the rest of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Given that the Tigers had the best record in the American League and the Cubs, along with the Mets, have been atop the National League, it gave the series a playoff feel, as the 121,509 fans who packed the park the last three days \u2014 with Cubs\u2019 fans well-represented \u2014 would attest.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a blessing to play in front of so many people and to play against that team,\u201d said Kerry Carpenter, who contributed three hits and a pivotal defensive play. \u201cIt was fun to compete against them and I thought we gave our best. It was fun to come out with a series win and show that we can beat good teams, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Flaherty, whose season has been uneven to this point, responded with his most complete outing to date.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe got into the game so exceptionally well,\u201d manager AJ Hinch said. \u201cNine up and nine down\u2026Just a really good job of getting into the game, in a series-deciding matchup.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Cubs hit five home runs on Saturday, all of them off secondary pitches. Flaherty was certainly aware of that as he attacked early with a lively, well-located four-seam fastball that was sitting at 94 and hit 96 mph early in the game. Off of that, he was tying Cubs hitters in knots with a clever mix of knuckle-curves and sliders.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou feel things out as the game goes on,\u201d said Flaherty, who struck out nine. \u201cBut we were able to establish (the fastball) and spin off of that. Typically, that\u2019s a good thing but it\u2019s even better when you can command the ball, and outside of one inning, I did a good job of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Cubs whiffed on eight of 16 swings at the knuckle-curve. Five of his nine strikeouts were with that pitch. Conversely, with the hitters focused on the spin, Flaherty stole 17 called strikes with a four-seam fastball that he was locating on the edges and especially at the bottom of the strike zone.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just wanted to come out and give the team a chance to win,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s a good team over there and we had an opportunity to go out and win a series.\u201d<\/p>\n
Flaherty created a big mess for himself in the fourth with three walks.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just lost my arm in space, I guess,\u201d he said. \u201cJust lost it.\u201d<\/p>\n
But he got bailed out by his defense, specifically by a textbook play by Carpenter and catcher Dillon Dingler.<\/p>\n
With runners at first and second, Pete Crow-Armstrong lashed a single to right. Carpenter fielded it cleanly and threw one-hop strike to Dingler. Dingler made a quick tag on Ian Happ, who tried to make a swing move at the plate.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust being aggressive on it,\u201d Carpenter said. \u201cIt was an in-between hop, but once it hit the pocket (of his glove), I looked at Happ. I thought he\u2019d be closer to home at that point. I don\u2019t know if maybe he got a bad read or something. But I thought I had a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dingler not only fielded the hop, he wasn\u2019t fooled by the Happ\u2019s attempt to evade the tag.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t know how close it was going to be, but he couldn\u2019t have made a better throw,\u201d Dingler said. \u201cThat was awesome. Perfect little one hop right to me. I was nervous about the replay. I thought we had him out in real time, but you never know when replay comes into play.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut yeah, I was happy it stood and it was a big momentum shift.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carpenter saved the game on Friday, getting back to the wall in right, leaping and stealing a potential extra base hit or homer from Seiya Suzaki with two runners on in the eighth.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m seeing the game slow down for Carp a little bit,\u201d Hinch said. \u201cWhether it was getting back to the wall the other night and timing his jump or just having the confidence to finish the play. The key part of his play today was no panic, no stress, no hurry.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to play fast but you can\u2019t hurry. He just came up in a nice rhythm and made a nice throw. That was awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carpenter, in classic form, wasn\u2019t totally satisfied with the play.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe throw was a little high,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I was pretty upset that PCA (Crow-Armstrong) got to second base.\u201d<\/p>\n
Flaherty made sure that didn\u2019t hurt. He got Michael Busch to line to Parker Meadows, who made a leaping catch in center field.<\/p>\n
\u201cJack battled through an inning you may never see again,\u201d Hinch said. \u201cThree walks and a single and no runs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Detroit Tigers’ Javier Baez celebrates with second baseman Gleyber Torres (25) after a win over the Chicago Cubs in a baseball game Sunday, June 8, 2025, in Detroit. (DUANE BURLESON \u2014\u00a0AP Photo)<\/p>\n
After allowing a leadoff double to Dansby Swanson in the fifth, Flaherty struck out Nico Hoerner on a disputed fastball that looked to be out of the zone, and Matt Shaw, before retiring Happ to end the inning.<\/p>\n
Hoerner and Cubs manager Craig Counsell were both ejected by home plate umpire Derek Thomas for arguing the call on Hoerner.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was huge to make the adjustment from my last time out when things may not have been as great,\u201d Flaherty said. \u201cI was bailed out by some really good defense then, too. But to come out today and be able to execute a lot better, that\u2019s another step in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Tigers\u2019 offense was triggered by their two middle-order mainstays. Spencer Torkelson delivered a clutch, two-out, two-run double in the first. And Riley Greene, off a four-strikeout day Saturday, had two hits, including a two-run single in the seventh.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been earning that,\u201d Carpenter said of Greene. \u201cI keep telling him, he\u2019s one at-bat away from the best streak of his career and today may have started it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI do hope so,\u201d said Greene, who broke out two new bats for the game and changed his walk-up song (Toby Keith). \u201cShoutout to Jake Rogers for helping me find a new walk-up song. But this was awesome. We were talking, that first night felt like the playoffs. It was so much fun and that\u2019s what we love to do. We love to play in front of all these people in this ballpark.\u201d<\/p>\n
The series more than lived up to its billing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIncredible,\u201d Hinch said. \u201cThat is exactly the environment we want to create for the rest of the summer. I\u2019ve always said, we\u2019re going to have a team you\u2019re going to be proud of. And I trust and expect the fans to come out and support a team that is maturing and getting more confident.\u201d<\/p>\n
One concern, though: It was clear Carpenter wasn\u2019t running comfortably.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust being cautious,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t really feel much, just doing my best. The training staff and strength staff are doing such a good job. I was a little cautious today. Going as hard as I can, hard as I feel comfortable with.\u201d<\/p>\n
He was lifted for a pinch-runner in the seventh. He has been playing through some stiffness in his hamstring the last week.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just think mentally he\u2019s trying to push through where he\u2019s at,\u201d Hinch said. \u201cHe had a really active day. I have to pay attention and make good decisions along the way.\u201d<\/p>\n
And so ends another grueling patch of the schedule for the Tigers (43-24). The win completes their second run of 23 games in 24 days this season.<\/p>\n
They went 15-8 in their first 23-in-24 stretch and 14-9 in this one. Impressive. And the good news, they won\u2019t have another stretch like this the rest of the season. In fact, they will be off on the next three Mondays.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat will be welcomed by everybody,\u201d Hinch said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DETROIT \u2013 None of this is new for Jack Flaherty. He\u2019s pitched in the game\u2019s biggest cathedrals and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89469,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2386],"tags":[5,147,598,53,2583,4901,4,185,594,3994],"class_list":{"0":"post-89468","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-tigers","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-detroit","10":"tag-detroit-lions","11":"tag-detroit-tigers","12":"tag-detroittigers","13":"tag-michigan","14":"tag-mlb","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-tigers","17":"tag-wayne-county"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114650174184971514","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}