Flaherty helps LA offset scoreless playoff innings in G1 loss to the Mets

LOS ANGELES – After spending the first seven years of his big league career in the East, Jack Flaherty came home. He joined a winning Los Angeles Dodgers team and helped create a piece of playoff history.

Flaherty combined a three-hitter and the Los Angeles Dodgers pitchers tied the postseason record of 33 consecutive scoreless innings by defeating the New York Mets 9-0 in the opening game of the NL Championship Series on Sunday night.

“As I was warming up, I saw some family members out there that I’ve gone to games with before, so you can just relax a little bit,” he said. “I felt like I tried to do too much in the last few big games. I just allowed myself to be myself and just go out and pitch and trust my stuff and trust the guys behind me.”

Los Angeles struck out a wild Kodai Senga in the second inning, built a six-run lead in the fourth inning, and tied the scoreless record set by Baltimore Orioles pitchers in the first four games of the 1966 World Series against the Dodgers.

Supported by “MVP! MVP!” shouts. Shohei Ohtani was 2 for 4 with a walk while scoring two runs and driving in another.

Mookie Betts added a three-run double in the eighth, marking the largest shutout margin of victory in the Dodgers’ postseason history and also the Mets’ most lopsided postseason shutout loss.

“Our energy started with Jack,” Betts said. “Jack really gave us everything 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 of more than seven innings since Clayton Kershaw’s eight innings in the 2020 NL Wild Card Series.

“It was just a pitching clinic,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “I think he filled the attack zone brilliantly with his complete mix. Once we got a lead, he did a great job of just chasing and attacking those guys. For us, getting seven innings in a long series was a huge challenge.”

Flaherty left to 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 was an integral part of a rotation hit hard by injuries.

“He has an aura,” Dodgers catcher Will Smith said. “He’s super competitive, super 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 their Little League days in the San Fernando Valley were also in attendance.

“This game is a lot of fun and I’ve been lucky enough to play it since I was a little kid,” Flaherty said. “No matter how much pressure there is, I just tell the boys that it will be fun. We have to remember that sometimes.”

Flaherty retired his first nine batters, extending the streak of consecutive hitters retired by the Dodgers to 28, before striking out Francisco Lindor in the leadoff of the fourth. New York’s only hits against him were two singles by Jesse Winker and Jose Iglesias in the fifth. Flaherty struck out six.

“He was getting ahead with his fastball, and then the slider, the breaking ball and the slow curve threw us off balance, but he was getting ahead and making throws,” rookie Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “He tried to force us to pursue him, which is what we did the first time by order. Then it was just his turn.”

Daniel Hudson and Ben Casparius each pitched one inning.

According to ESPN Research, the Dodgers are the third team ever to post three straight postseason shutouts. The other two teams (the Orioles in 1966 and the Giants in 1905) made no pitching changes; the Dodgers made 13.

Lindor was 0 for 3 with a walk and a strikeout and Pete Alonso was hitless with a walk and a strikeout in three at-bats.

The Dodgers battled close to elimination against San Diego and won the NL Division Series in five games, with shutouts in the final two games.

They opened their quest for a record 25th. NL pennant by chasing Senga after 1 1/3 innings of just his third start overall in a year decimated by injuries. The Japanese right-hander walked four of his first eight batters in the first inning, including three in a row in a 14-pitch span.

“He didn’t have it,” Mendoza said. “He didn’t have life on his fastball and had a lot of balls out of his hands, uncompetitive pitches, especially the split. You could tell by the way they took those pitches that they were handballs.”

Senga walked the bases with one out in the first game when only seven of his 23 pitches were thrown for strikes. Max Muncy hit a single up the middle, hitting Betts and a limping Freddie Freeman, whose left foot touched the plate to protect his sprained right ankle. He stumbled into the arms of Betts, who was supporting the much taller and taller Freeman.

Ohtani chased Senga with an RBI single in the second and the Dodgers scored three runs in the fourth off reliever David Peterson, while Tommy Edman and Freeman had RBI singles

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.