by Cary Osborne
Since Jack Flaherty was acquired from Detroit before the trade deadline on July 30, another month has often been mentioned with his name: October.
On Aug. 3, his Dodger debut, he was in the kind of situation often found in the pressure cooker of October.
Pitch count rising and water rising, Flaherty was stressed. The Dodgers clung to a two-run lead in the sixth inning with no outs and the bases loaded on Saturday.
Flaherty spun curveballs that fell off the ledge to Oakland catcher Shea Langeliers (grounded into a forceout) and first baseman Seth Brown (strikeout swinging). He then induced an inning-ending groundout by third baseman Abraham Toro.
“For me personally, I need to learn him and see how the body, how the emotions, the body language, pitch execution, all that stuff, and I’m still trying to gather information,” said manager Dave Roberts. “But I just felt if we’re expecting him to do what we expect in October, he’s got to be able to manage stress. And he did a fantastic job of getting the punchout and getting a couple of ground balls.”
The 28-year-old right-hander threw six shutout innings in the Dodgers’ 10–0 win against the Athletics in Oakland, stopping a three-game losing streak.
The Dodgers scored eight runs after Flaherty exited, but the sixth inning was a critical point in the game.
“One pitch at a time — nothing changes,” Flaherty described as his thinking in the situation. “We got the two outs there, and then you take a step off and refocus and not let your mind wander.”
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This was a critical game, with the Dodgers going 1–5 on this roadtrip heading into Saturday.
Flaherty also took a line drive off the calf in the fourth inning on a ball struck with a 106.3-mph exit velocity by Brown.
The A’s were 2-for-13 against Flaherty breaking balls, including 0-for-5 against his slider.
Flaherty has limited opponents to a .186 batting average and .328 slugging percentage against his breaking balls this year.
He has a 1.14 ERA over his last four starts and a 1.57 ERA over his last nine starts.
30/30 Man
Shohei Ohtani went 2-for-5 in the game with three stolen bases. He now has 31 stolen bases this season to go along with his 33 home runs.
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That puts him on a 48-home run/45-stolen base pace.
The 40/40 club has just five members in MLB history:
1988: Jose Canseco (Oakland) — 42 home runs/40 stolen bases
1996: Barry Bonds (San Francisco) — 42 home runs/40 stolen bases
1998: Alex Rodriguez (Seattle) — 42 home runs/46 stolen bases
2006: Alfonso Soriano (Washington) — 46 home runs/41 stolen bases
2023: Ronald Acuña Jr. (Atlanta) — 41 home runs/73 stolen bases
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Hernández/Hernández
Teoscar and Kiké Hernández each went 3-for-4. Kiké Hernández drove in two runs and scored two runs. He also drew a walk. The utilityman also pitched a scoreless ninth inning, allowing a double.
The last Dodger position player to also appear in a game as a pitcher and collect at least three hits as a batter was Jeff Hamilton on June 3, 1989.
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Where They Stand
The Dodgers (64–47), have a 4 1/2 game lead over San Diego in the National League West. The Dodgers wrap up their eight-game road trip on Sunday in Oakland with River Ryan making his third career start.
Jack Flaherty pushes back on pressure and helps put a stop to Dodger losing skid was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.