Fastball

Detroit Tigers' Hurler Dominates Old Team in Historic Fashion on Tuesday

Pitching against the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday afternoon, Detroit Tigers' off-season acquisition Jack Flaherty dominated in a fashion rarely seen in the pitch-tracking era. The historic performance included Flaherty's 14 strikeouts and no runs allowed.

Brady Farkas

Apr 30, 2024; Detroit, Michigan, USA; Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Jack Flaherty (9) delivers
Apr 30, 2024; Detroit, Michigan, USA; Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Jack Flaherty (9) delivers / David Reginek-USA TODAY Sports

The Detroit Tigers fell to the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 1 of a doubleheader on Tuesday afternoon in Detroit by a score of 2-1.

Unfortunately for Detroit, they couldn't hold a 1-0 lead in the top of the ninth, surrendering two runs in the frame.

While the loss certainly stings, it shouldn't overshadow the historic performance of Tigers' pitcher Jack Flaherty, who dominated his old team in historic fashion.

Flaherty, who signed with Detroit this offseason, went 6.2 innings on the mound, allowing just two hits and no runs. He walked one and struck out 14. He did all that on just 93 pitches, which put him in a special class in recent baseball history.

Per @CodifyBaseball:

The only guys to strike out 14+ batters in any MLB game in the entire pitch tracking era with no more than 93 pitches:

(Gerrit) Cole in 2018 (14 Ks, 93 pitches)
(Jacob) deGrom in 2021 (14, 93)
(Hunter) Greene in 2023 (14, 92)
(Tyler) Glasnow on 4/9 (14, 88)
(Jacks) Flaherty today (14, 93)

In six appearances for the Tigers this year, Flaherty is now 0-1 with a 4.00 ERA. He has struck out a whopping 50 batters in 36.0 innings. That is second in all of baseball behind Glasnow (53).

The Tigers rebounded to win Game 2 of the doubleheader, 11-6, and are now 17-13 on the season. The Cardinals are 14-16 after the split.

The two teams will play again on Wednesday afternoon with first pitch coming at 1:10 p.m. ET. Miles Mikolas (STL) pitches against Kenta Maeda (DET).

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Brady Farkas

BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady.Â