Tigers Starter Jack Flaherty Opens Up About Frustrations After Recent Starts
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The Detroit Tigers' season hasn't gone exactly how the front office, coaches, players, and fans would have thought coming out of spring training. Continuing to hover around the .500 mark, the Tigers have another area they have to address, once again focused on the pitching staff.
Detroit's bullpen has been inconsistent this year, but from what manager A.J. Hinch got from them against the Texas Rangers on Friday night, perhaps they're turning a corner. Who continues to struggle, however, is starting pitcher Jack Flaherty, who was unable to lead Detroit to a win.
Flaherty allowed four runs in 3.2 innings of work on Friday against the Rangers, while walking three and striking out four. He allowed another home run, which could've been two if Wenceel Perez didn't help him out right out of the gates. He threw 91 pitches, and 55 of them were strikes.
Flaherty's Growing Frustration
With an ERA now at 5.90, the Tigers aren't getting their bang for their buck on Flaherty since his return to Detroit. The franchise knows what he's capable of, bringing him back after trading him away to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2024, where he posted a sub-three ERA in the first half in the Motor City.
Flaherty knows what he's capable of, too, as he spoke in his postgame about his early-season struggles, via Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press on X (formerly Twitter).
"I don't think it's mechanical. I just lost the zone for three or four hitters in a row out of the middle of nowhere. Today, I was on the attack and really good for the first two innings, and then after that, that third inning, you just lose it for three hitters. It's agonizing. It's frustrating. It pisses you off," Flaherty said.
"I don’t think I've ever walked guys like this in my career. It's going to be frustrating until we figure it out. ... Everything you do in between starts is working on figuring things out. I'm doing everything that I can. I'm sorry to sound frustrated — I just am. It's kept me up. All I can do is continue to work and try to get after it."
How Flaherty Can Rebound
Flaherty is the hardest on himself amid the baseball world, being laser-focused on having success. Perhaps taking that pressure off of himself to try to be what he was in 2024 will help him in 2026.
This is the last year Flaherty is under contract with Detroit, so it's more important to go through the rough times now and figure it out down the stretch than have a constant year of frustrations.
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Dominic Minchella is a 2024 Eastern Michigan University graduate with a BA in Communications, Media, and Theatre Arts and a Journalism minor. He covers Major League Baseball for On SI and spends his free time watching games and sharing his insights.