Jack Flaherty had a rough night, surrendering three home runs while his offense struggled with right-hander Davis Daniel in his major league debut as a starter. The Tigers managed just four hits and no walks as the Angels cruised to a 5-0 victory in the first of four in Anaheim.
The Tigers swung the bats well against RHP Davis Daniel, making just his fourth total MLB appearance at age 27, in the first inning. Yet they came away with nothing to show for it, and from there Daniel owned them the rest of the night. An eight inning shutout in your first start, at age 27 no less, is pretty impressive. However, the Tigers lineup gave him no stress at all.
Matt Vierling led off with a single, but continues to struggle to put his straight line speed to work stealing bases. He was cut down by a good Logan O’Hoppe throw trying to take second and Colt Keith took a perfectly placed changeup on the outer edge for strike three. Riley Greene then followed with a solid double down the left field line, but it was all for naught as Gio Urshela grounded out to end the inning. That was about it from the offense.
Jack Flaherty needed just nine pitches to collect three routine outs in the bottom half. However after the Tigers went 1-2-3 in the top of the second, Miguel Sano got a 2-2 fourseamer down the pipe and crushed it to left center for a solo shot. Flaherty cleaned up the rest of the inning without issue.
Carson Kelly drove a ball to the warning track in the third, but it didn’t quite have the juice and was caught by Jo Adell. Nolan Schanuel singled to right with two outs in the bottom half but Flaherty got a Luis Rengifo ground out to end the inning.
Colt Keith lined out to left to open the fourth. Riley Greene followed him and again smoked a ball to the opposite field, this time for a sharp single. Gio Urshela grounded out, this time into a double play to end the Tigers half of the inning.
Flaherty punched out Taylor Ward and Sano to start the bottom half, but a fastball that tailed back over the middle of the plate was smoked by Willie Calhoun for another solo shot. When Flaherty’s fastball has obvious tailing action, it’s not a good thing. Logan O’Hoppe flew out to end the inning, but the Tigers were down 2-0 and not doing much against a pretty inexperienced starting pitcher.
That immediately continued in the fifth, as Wenceel Pérez flew out to center field and Daniel carved up Baddoo and Justyn-Henry Malloy to get his offense right back into the box against Flaherty. And Flaherty continued to struggle with his fourseamer.
Zach Neto greeted him with a double to open the bottom of the fifth. Flaherty bounced back to pop up Mickey Moniak, and Adell grounded out weakly. There would be no escaping this jam, however. Schanuel lined a single to score Neto, and in a 3-2 count Flaherty dropped a slider at the bottom of the zone, and Rengifo golfed it out to right field for a two-run shot, and the third homer of the night allowed. 5-0 Angels.
Ok, maybe we will be able to sign Jack to a reasonable extension…
Things didn’t improve in the sixth. McKinstry popped out to shortstop and Carson Kelly again roasted the baseball right to a defender, this time Sano at third on a line drive. Daniel was doing a pretty good job mixing pitches without missing over the middle, but the Tigers were doing nothing much beyond Riley Greene.
There isn’t much else to say about Flaherty’s outing. He just didn’t have it in this one. He came back out for the sixth and got the first two outs, but a single to O’Hoppe was followed by a pair of wild pitches that moved the runner to third. Kelly deserves partial credit there as well. Flaherty walked Neto as he reached 100 pitches, and it was Beau Brieske on to get the final out of the inning.
Neto took the opportunity to steal second base, and it was Brieske vs. Mickey Moniak. Brieske won, blowing Moniak away with high heat.
Interesting to look around the Angels roster without Mike Trout. They have several former high end prospects who never panned out, like Moniak or Willie Calhoun, along with Adell, who has finally found a little role in the majors but is still struggling.
Daniel opened the seventh at 73 pitches and promptly got a routine fly out to right from Keith. He froze Greene with a 1-2 fastball right down the middle, and Urshela flew out to right. Hopefully most of you called it a night by this point.
Brieske got the first two outs of the bottom of the seventh, but Rengifo slapped a sharp grounder up the middle that ate up McKinstry for a single that should’ve been an error. Brieske then nailed Taylor Ward in the left arm with a tailing fastball. A seven pitch battle with Sano ended with a whiff over a really good changeup, but the booted grounder and lengthy AB meant Brieske threw 25 pitches instead of 14. We’ll see if that affects his availability the rest of the four-game set. Mistakes always compound in these ways.
The Tigers got a Pérez single to start the eighth, but Daniel just continued to make pitches with few mistakes and finished the inning unscathed. Heck of an MLB debut, but the Tigers just did not produce any power. On a day when nothing drops in and they draw no walks, there is no way to win.
Joey Wentz handled the bottom of the eighth. Hard throwing Ben Joyce took over in the ninth and other than another Kelly fly ball to Adell on the warning track in right, had an easy time putting the Tigers away.
RHP Kenta Maeda takes on RHP Zach Plesac on Friday night at 9:38 p.m. ET.