LOS ANGELES — The weight of the world might not be on Jack Flaherty, but the weight of Los Angeles sure was Friday night as his hometown team opened the World Series at Dodger Stadium.
He pitched effectively with all of that weight in Game 1 of the Hollywood-Broadway matchup, shutting out the Yankees for the first five innings. But it was another Valley kid that knocked him out of Game 1, Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton.
In the end, Freddie Freeman, another Southern California native played the role of the hero with Orange County’s Freddie Freeman hitting a walk-off grand slam off Nestor Cortes to give the Dodgers a 1-0 lead in the series. But before the Dodgers’ comeback, Flaherty very nearly played that role.
With the Dodgers up 1-0 coming into the sixth, Flaherty had allowed only three hits coming into the inning and Juan Soto made it four when he led off with a single up the center. Aaron Judge struck out to bring up Stanton, who also grew up in the nearby San Fernando Valley as a fan of the Dodgers.
Flaherty went to Harvard-Westlake High School and was part of a vaunted rotation that included Max Fried and Lucas Giolito. Stanton went to his rival high school just over Ventura Blvd in Sherman Oaks, Notre Dame. They never crossed paths with Stanton seven years older, but they met on a collision course of sorts Friday night.
Flaherty threw him a knuckle curve on 1-2. It was a good pitch that broke to the inside corner on the right-handed Stanton, one plenty of other hitters would have missed. But Stanton reached down below the zone and golfed it. He sent it so high it looked as though it would clear the top of the left field foul pole.
But then it kept carrying.
Stanton hit it 412 feet into the left field stands to pull the Yankees ahead of the Dodgers, 2-1. He’s done some amazing things in the ballpark of his childhood, including hitting a 478-foot home run as a member of the Miami Marlins that is still commemorated with a plaque.
Stanton owns a lifetime OPS over 1.000 at Chavez Ravine. If the Yankees are going to be able to out-slug the Dodgers, Stanton could be huge.
But for the Dodgers, Flaherty could be huge.
The right-handed starter that was acquired to provide pitching depth for the Dodgers became more than depth when the Los Angeles pitching staff began to fall like dominoes. The hometown kid who first attended a game at Chavez Ravine at only six months old has been tasked with starting the last two series for the Dodgers.
This not only puts him firmly in the spotlight, but in the absence of the other starters, it means he has to pitch twice in a best-of-seven series and pitch deep into those two games. The Dodgers are heavily reliant on their bullpen without Tyler Glasnow, Clayton Kershaw, Gavin Stone and Tony Gonsolin.
Flaherty was removed from the game after the homer by Stanton. The bullpen was rested after four days off and the Dodgers were going to have to use it aggressively after tying the game in the eighth and going into extra innings. He’ll get another chance to be a hometown hero, but in Game 1, it was Freeman.
