Jack Flaherty Pitching Exact Opposite of What Tigers Need Right Now
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It has been a brutal stretch for the Detroit Tigers, who have lost 10 of their last 12. While it isn't fair to blame any one part of the roster, it sure is hard to ignore what is going on with the team's pitching staff right now.
Yes, the staff has been dismantled by injuries highlighted by Tarik Skubal's surgery, which has him sitting right by Justin Verlander on the dreaded injured list, where Casey Mize also sat until he was activated on Saturday.
So, with three of the club's five starters not available for a significant time, Detroit has needed consistency and solid starts out of both Jack Flaherty and Framber Valdez. The exact opposite has been the case.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s hits his first home run since April 20th off of Jack Flaherty! pic.twitter.com/YdmhTtzBPp
— Talkin' Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) May 17, 2026
The day the news broke about Skubal, Valdez went and got himself suspended for hitting a player in the back, which was deemed intentional. Then, there is Flaherty, who is walking guys at a high rate, and cannot keep runs off the board.
Flaherty has had a few good outings, but he can't keep himself on the hill because he either racks up his pitch count quickly or gets burned by the other team's offense. Those issues were on full display in his start Sunday in the series finale against the Toronto Blue Jays, which led to a team loss.
Flaherty at Home Against the Blue Jays
Problems started incredibly early for Flaherty against a struggling Toronto offense led by two-time Silver Slugger Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who had not had a hit in his last six games. His first at-bat was a bomb against Flaherty; his first since April 20, and only his third of the season.
That was followed by a Daulton Varsho double, a Jesus Sanchez single, and a wild pitch by Flaherty. The score was 2-0, and the pitch count was nearly 30 by the time the first inning was over.
The bottom of the Jays' order was kind to him, but the struggles that are going on there are astronomical. The top of the order, on the other hand, rattled Flaherty, so when Guerrero Jr. was back up, the scoring commenced.
DON'T LET VARSH GET HOT 🥵
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) May 17, 2026
Daulton Varsho drives in Vladdy with an RBI triple 🤝 pic.twitter.com/fHqHO6Ejf8
Vladdy found his second hit of the day, and Varsho brought him in immediately with his first triple of the season. Then a sac fly from his teammate put the Tigers down 4-0 quickly.
Flaherty was actually able to stay in this game through the sixth, simply because the Jays were without so many hitters in the lineup, so his stat line isn't too ugly, but when it counted, he couldn't come through.
Detroit's offense fell victim to the Jays' starting pitcher, Kevin Gausman, so they ended up dropping the game, 4-1. Baseball is the longest season in professional sports, so the ball club is far from out of a playoff spot, but the Tigers are really putting themselves in a tough hole to dig out of.
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Maddy Dickens resides in Loveland, Colorado. She grew up with two older brothers, where their lives revolved around sports. She earned a master's degree in business management from Tarleton State University while simultaneously playing basketball and competing in rodeo at the collegiate level. She successfully parlayed a reserve national championship into a professional rodeo career and now stays involved in upper-level athletics by writing for On SI on several different MLB teams' pages, along with some NCAA sites.