by Megan Garcia
Jack Flaherty grew up calling Burbank home. He grew up watching Dodger games. On Friday, he pitched for the first time as a Dodger at Dodger Stadium.
Flaherty earned the win, as the Dodgers beat the Pirates, 9–5. The right-hander tossed 5 2/3 innings while giving up four earned runs on nine hits with 10 strikeouts and one walk. It was his first double-digit strikeout outing since April 30 when he struck out 14.
“It was a lot of fun. It’s a special thing,” Flaherty said. “Just enjoying every second of it.”
Flaherty cruised through the three scoreless innings with three strikeouts and two hits before giving up a home run to Oneil Cruz in the fourth.
The 28-year-old bounced back to strikeout five of the following nine batters after Cruz’s homer. In the top of the fifth inning, Joey Bart hit a three-run home run to left field with two outs. It sliced the Dodgers’ lead to 7–4.
“He was one pitch away from getting out of that inning,” said manager Dave Roberts. “It was good to see him out there in the sixth. He wanted it. I think at that point in time, I just felt that he emptied the tank. But I think overall, just a solid performance.”
Flaherty returned to the mound in the sixth inning with an extended lead once again. He left the game with two outs in that inning after Michael A. Taylor singled to center. But left-handed reliever Anthony Banda kept the inning scoreless, keeping the win intact for Flaherty in his home debut.
“There’s stuff to clean up,” Flaherty said. “But overall, it’s a good day.”
The Loud Offense
There was some hesitation if the ball carrying to left field would make it over the wall. But when Pirates left fielder Bryan Reynolds stretched his arm above his head in the bottom of the fifth with two outs, the Dodgers celebrated.
Kiké Hernández’s line drive bounced off Reynolds’ glove and ricochetted over the wall for a home run. The Dodgers clubbed three home runs in the game.
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Freddie Freeman hit his 17th homer in the first inning to start the scoring for Los Angeles. It was Freeman’s first long ball since returning to the active roster on Aug. 5.
“I didn’t know how I was going to do when I first came back by not seeing a lot of pitching, but I’m seeing the ball OK,” Freeman said. “I’m hitting the ball when they’re strikes.”
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Shohei Ohtani followed in the bottom of the third with his National-League leading 35th home run. It was his 11th homer of the season where it traveled at least 440 feet.
“The way the ball comes off, I’ve never seen anything like it and I’ve seen a lot,” Roberts said. “I played with Barry Bonds and the ball didn’t come off like it does off Shohei’s bat.”
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Jack Flaherty’s Dodger Stadium debut in blue ends up in a W was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.