LOS ANGELES (AP) — After spending the first seven years of his big league career in the East, Jack Flaherty He came home. He joined a winning team in the Los Angeles Dodgers and helped make playoff history.
Flaherty combined for a three-hitter and Los Angeles Dodgers pitchers snapped a postseason streak of 33 consecutive scoreless innings to beat the New York Mets 9-0 on Sunday night in the NL Championship Series opener.
“I saw some families out there during the warm-up, I’ve been to games here before, so it lets you relax a little bit,” he said. “I tried to do too much the last two times in some big games. Allowing myself to be myself, go out and trust my stuff, trust the people behind me.
Los Angeles is out A wild gift is Senga In the second inning, a six-run lead went into the fourth inning, breaking the Baltimore Orioles pitchers’ scoreless streak against the Dodgers in the first four games of the 1966 World Series.
“MVP! MVP!” Shohei Ohtani Was 2 for 4 with a walk.
Mookie Betts added a three-run double in the eighth in the largest shutout margin in Dodgers postseason history, and the Mets’ most one-sided season shutout loss.
“All of our energy started with Jack,” Betts said. “Jack really gave it to us today.”
Game 2 of the best-of-seven series is Monday afternoon.
Flaherty allowed two hits over seven innings in the Dodgers’ first scoreless postseason start since Clayton Kershaw’s eight innings in the 2020 NL Wild Card Series.
“It was a pitching clinic,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “I thought he did a great job of filling the strike zone with his complete lineup. When we got a lead, he did a great job of going after those guys and hitting. For us to get seven innings in a long streak was huge.
Flaherty received a standing ovation from the sellout crowd of 53,503. The 28-year-old right-hander from nearby Burbank returned home from Detroit at the July 30 trade deadline and has been a steady presence in a rotation hit hard by injuries.
“He’s got an aura about him,” Dodgers catcher Will Smith said. “He’s very competitive, very focused.”
Flaherty got a hug from Roberts, and then the pitcher hugged his mother, who was sitting behind home plate. Some of his friends from Little League days in the San Fernando Valley were also on hand.
“This sport is a lot of fun and I’ve been lucky enough to do it since I was a little kid,” Flaherty said. “The more pressure they get, the more fun I tell the guys. Sometimes we have to remember that.
Flaherty retired his first nine batters, extending the Dodgers streak to 28. New York’s only hits were a pair of singles by Jesse Winger and Jose Iglesias in the fifth. Flaherty hit a six.
“He stepped up with his fastball, and then the slider, the breaking ball, the slow curve kept us off balance, but he stepped up and made pitches,” rookie Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “He tried to chase us down, which we did through the order the first time. Then he stayed put.
Daniel Hudson and Ben Kasparius pitched an inning each.
Lindor was 0 for 3 with a walk and a strikeout and Pete Alonso was hitless in three at-bats with a walk and a strikeout.
The Dodgers rallied from the brink of elimination against San Diego to win the NL Division Series in five games, shutouts in the final two games.
They chased a record 25th NL pennant after 1 1/3 innings of Chenga’s third overall start in a year marred by injuries. The Japanese right-hander walked four of his first eight batters, including three in a row over a 14-pitch span in the first inning.
“He’s not having it,” Mendoza said. “He had no life in his fastball and a lot of out-of-hand balls, uncontested pitches, especially splits. The way they took those pitches, you could tell they were out-of-hand balls.
Chenga struck out one in the first when only seven of his 23 pitches were thrown for strikes. Max Muncy singled up the middle, Betts and a faltering Freddie Freeman touched the plate with his left foot to protect a sprained right ankle. He staggered into Betts’ arms, who steadied the much larger and taller Freeman.
Ohtani drove in Chenga with an RBI single in the second and the Dodgers scored three runs in the fourth off reliever David Peterson as Tommy Edman and Freeman had RBI singles.
next
Mets Sean Manaea starts Game 2 after winning Game 3 of the NL Division Series against Philadelphia. It’s the first time the Dodgers have faced a left-handed starter this postseason. The Dodgers have not said who will start the bullpen for them.
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