Tigers waste Jack Flaherty's 'exceptional' start, cough up lead in 9th to Cardinals

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Detroit — Jack Flaherty stood in front of his locker on Monday and talked about facing the St. Louis Cardinals for the first time.

He grew up in that organization and spent his first seven seasons wearing the Cardinal red. Still, he tried to downplay the gravity of the matchup.

"Job's the same," he shrugged.

Hmm. Maybe so, but there certainly seemed to be extra fire in his right arm Tuesday.

He set a franchise record and tied an American League record by striking out the first seven hitters he faced, on his way to a career-high 14-strikeout performance. Unfortunately for the Tigers, it didn't produce a win.

The Cardinals scored twice in the top of the ninth off another former Cardinals pitcher, Shelby Miller, and took the first game of a doubleheader Tuesday, 2-1, at Comerica Park.

"I think everything today was a function of being in sync," Flaherty said afterward. "I was able to throw the curveball when I wanted to. I got a little tired at the end but still was able to put the fastball where I wanted to. And the slider. It was one of those days when everything is in sync and working and you hope to capitalize on those days."

BOX SCORE: Cardinals 2, Tigers 1

It was a brilliant performance, the likes of which Tigers fans haven't seen since a pair of Cy Young Award winners were on the staff (Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer) 10 years ago.

"Flaherty, man, exceptional job," said Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol. "He was on and it was nasty. He had his stuff today. Velo was ticking up, and it was good. It was a good dogfight back and forth."

Flaherty ended the first inning by striking out Lars Nootbar with a 98-mph four-seam fastball. Per Statcast, he hadn't touched 98 mph since 2019, the year he finished fourth in the Cy Young Award voting with the Cardinals.

His average fastball velocity coming into the game was 93.6 mph and he sat at 95 mph with the 39 heaters he threw at his former mates. He was pumped up. And he was also expertly mixing and landing his slider, changeup and knuckle-curve.

He threw 16 first-pitch strikes to 23 hitters. He also got 24 misses on 47 swings, 10 whiffs on 18 swings at the heater. He threw 93 pitches total with a 71% strike rate.

"It's good to work ahead," Flaherty said. "It's something we talked about going into the year. Something I needed to do better. Something I hadn't done very well. To get ahead of a lineup like that, with the guys they have and stay on the attack, I think we kept them on their heels."

His 14th punch-out came on his last pitch of the day — a 1-2 slider that Paul Goldschmidt chased. The last Tigers pitcher to strike out 14 in a game was Scherzer on Aug. 14, 2014.

"It was more about the moment of the game," Flaherty said. "It was a 1-0 game in the seventh and you got Paul Goldschmidt. I'd just walked Nado (Nolan Arenado). I just wanted to keep making pitches until AJ (Hinch) came and got me."

Flaherty walked off to a standing ovation with two outs and a runner on and a 1-0 lead in the seventh inning. He'd allowed just two singles and walk.

"You could feel it early on," catcher Carson Kelly said, himself a former Cardinal. "Even before the game, in his bullpen, he was on a mission. I think sometimes in the past he's gotten off slow and the message was, like, go from pitch one. That was something he really took to heart.

"He had a career day. It was pretty special."

Lefty Andrew Chafin got the last out of the seventh and the first out of the eighth. Jason Foley finished the eighth, stranding two runners. Hinch then opted to bring in Miller rather than let Foley try to get five outs.

Miller started by punching out Nootbar. It was the 700th strikeout of his career. But Arenado and Goldschmidt singled ahead of a game-tying RBI single by Alec Burleson. Pinch-hitter Pedro Pages plated Goldschmidt with a long sacrifice fly that center fielder Wenceel Perez caught at the base of the wall in center.

"Our bullpen has been unbelievable," Flaherty said. "Chafe did his job and Foles did his. Shelby has been awesome all year and he's going to pick it right back up. Sometimes these things happen. Guys are going to have tough days. Shelby has been a stud for a long time and he's going to continue to be."

The Tigers' hitters were being efficiently and effectively muffled by veteran right-hander Kyle Gibson. He allowed just four hits in seven innings. But one traveled 421 feet.

Riley Greene led off the fourth inning, after Gibson set down the first nine hitters, and clobbered a 92-mph four-seam fastball into the shrubbery in center field for his sixth home run of the season. The ball left his bat at 109 mph.

Gibson flummoxed the Tigers with an even mix of sinkers, changeups, sweepers, cutters and curveballs. He struck out nine and the 16 balls put in play against him had an average exit velocity of 84.5 mph.

Besides Greene's homer, the only other time Gibson was in trouble was the seventh. The Tigers loaded the bases with two outs, but he struck out pinch-hitter Mark Canha.  

"Guys kept saying we're going to find a way to steal this one," Marmol said. "You've got to keep at it. Jack was on. His stuff was good. Not only was the velo up, but he was locating. You've got to figure out a way before the last out of the game to get some guys on and get a big base hit and we were able to do that."

chris.mccosky@detroitnews.com

@cmccosky