As people finalize their predictions for the World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees, one component of the matchup is for sure the pitching including star Jack Flaherty. With the Yankees and Dodgers playing in another championship series, the latter is hoping to get one over their rivals though Flaherty has been experiencing a dip in velocity which gets blunt takes from those within the team.
In Flaherty’s last start in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series against the New York Mets, he averaged 91.4 mph on his pitches. He credited that to a timing issue and delivery which Los Angeles has been working to fix as pitching coach Mark Prior said candidly there is “concern” present according to ESPN.
“Obviously everybody knows — the more velocity the better, usually – unless you’re going way below hitting speed,” Prior said. “Concern, yeah, because obviously he was pitching on regular rest and it was a little bit down. Can he pitch with it? Yeah. He’s somebody who’s more about execution that anything. And I think they did a really good job of game planning the second time through, sitting on some of their slower spin stuff. But I think with extra rest and what we saw in bullpens, I feel pretty confident that he can get back to where he was the other time.”
Flaherty was traded from the Detroit Tigers to the Dodgers in the hopes of bolstering their pitching and from his side, be a major part of winning which he has a prime opportunity as he is projected to start Game 1 of the World Series against the Yankees.
Jack Flaherty’s “intent” could’ve led to dip on Dodgers
It has been an interesting last two games as in Game 1 of the NLCS, he pitched seven scoreless innings, but in the aforementioned Game 5, he let go of eight runs in three innings.
In that last outing, his fastball did dip as well by “two ticks” per ESPN which also brought down the season average of 93.3 mph and then in three of his past five starts, it is below 92 mph. However, that could also be the mechanics of the pitch as Prior explains it could be because “of intent.”
“And sometimes it’s intent,” Prior said. “He’s a little bit old school where sometimes he’ll throttle his heater so that he can jump on it a little bit late. We’ve seen that since the beginning. I know his velocity over the year is up a little bit more, but we’ve seen him pitch at 91 very effectively, and then next thing you know he’s 94, 95. He has the ability to go get it when he needs to. Sometimes when his delivery is a little bit off, though, it makes it a little bit more challenging to go get it.”
The rest for Flaherty could also be huge as before Game 1 of the NLCS, he got six days, but then before Game 5, he got four. When taking the mound against the Yankees, it will also be on extended rest until the traditional four days if there is a Game 5 as Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said “we don’t have a different alternative” in terms of scheduling pitchers.
Game 1 of the World Series is Friday night between the Dodgers and Yankees.
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