With all the starting pitching struggles plaguing the St. Louis Cardinals, right-hander Jack Flaherty came out on Wednesday and delivered a much-needed strong start.
He didn’t factor into the decision, but he pitched 5.1 innings and allowed two runs, with only one of them being earned.
The young right-hander also only walked one batter.
In his first two starts, he had walked a total of 13 batters.
However, his command had drastically improved on Wednesday.
The Cards won by a 7-4 final and earned a series win at Coors Field for the first time since 2018.
After the game, Flaherty gave an assessment of his performance and talked about what was working for him.
Flaherty on his outing against the Rockies: “It’s nice to not walk six guys. We just did a better job filling up the zone, throwing strikes with everything. … It starts with fastball command. I was able to do that a lot better today .” #STLCards pic.twitter.com/4bnEo2NPYt
— Bally Sports Midwest (@BallySportsMW) April 12, 2023
Flaherty started by saying that it was refreshing for him to not walk six batters for a change and pitch more like his old self.
He said that he felt like he did a much better job throwing strikes and filling up the strike zone, as well as commanding his fastball.
Flaherty also said he felt like he put in some solid work in between his last start against the Milwaukee Brewers and his start against the Rockies, and stressed the importance of fine-tuning things in between starts.
Flaherty is 1-1 through his first three starts and has posted a 1.76 ERA.
The right-hander has dealt with more than his fair share of injuries in recent years, but appears to have bounced back and rediscovered his form from the second half of the 2019 season, when he went on a tear and claimed the role of ace.
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