Cincinnati — Jack Flaherty talked barely above a whisper in the clubhouse afterward.
“Just work hard,” he said after he was chased after two innings in the Tigers’ 9-2 loss to the Reds Saturday at Great America Ball Park. “Get up tomorrow and start the process all over again. I’ve got five days to get right and get back on the horse. Just take tonight, sit on it, think about it and get back to work tomorrow.”
The red-hot Reds jumped on Flaherty right out of the gate, bashing three homers and scoring six times in two innings. It was his shortest start since June 26, 2022.
“His stuff was a little better and I think the command wasn’t great,” manager AJ Hinch said.
Flaherty walked Matt McLain and Elly De La Cruz with one out in the first inning. He did not land either of his breaking balls in the strike zone to the first three hitters.
The first slider in the zone came to Sal Stewart and he put it in the seats. Stewart’s ninth homer of the season was a three-run shot. Nathaniel Lowe, who hit two homers including the winner in the ninth on Friday, followed with a solo homer, hooking another slider down the line in right.
“They put the ball in play twice in the first inning and scored four runs,” Hinch said. “That’s pretty much the tone that was set for him. It was rough to recover from.”
It took Flaherty 36 pitches to get through the first and another 32 to get through the second. With two outs and a runner, De La Cruz scalded a knuckle-curve. The ball left his bat at 107.6 mph and flew 415 feet into the seats in left-center.
Flaherty,, who has walked 22 and hit four batters in 25.1 innings this season, was a picture of frustration as he left the mound and headed straight down the steps to the clubhouse.
“I don’t blame him for being frustrated,” Hinch said. “He’s out there trying to get in sync and trying to execute his pitches and he was under stress from the very beginning. I feel his frustration. I know he wants to be better and we need him to be better.”
The Tigers’ bullpen, already taxed from having to cover 4.2 innings Friday night, was tasked with covering seven innings Saturday. And to compound the issue, reliever Connor Seabold, maybe the freshest arm in the pen, left the game after only four batters.
Seabold had given up a two-run single to Steward (five RBI) and, while facing Lowe, slipped while delivering a 2-0 pitch and fell awkwardly. It looked like he injured his left ankle and left the game after making one practice pitch.
“It’s around his ankle,” Hinch said. “Not sure if it’s the ankle or a muscle around it. It kind of just gave way. He didn’t roll it because he fell forward. But he was moving gingerly with his plant foot.”
Drew Anderson, who pitched a scoreless inning Friday, was pressed into emergency duty. He ended a base-loaded mess in the sixth getting Spencer Steer to bounce into a 6-4-3 double-play and he struck out the side in the seventh.
He allowed a homer to TJ Friedl in the eighth but struck out five in 2.2 innings.
Still, with Seabold likely down and with Burch Smith and Anderson each going two innings, the Tigers are likely going to need bring up a fresh arm from Triple-A Toledo.
“We have to see,” Hinch said.
The Tigers runs came on home runs by Spencer Torkelson, his fourth in four games, and rookie Kevin McGonigle.
The last Tigers hitter to homer in four straight games was Ian Kinsler in May of 2016. The club record is five, set by Marcus Thames in June of 2008.
McGonigle, who hit the second pitch of the game from starter Brady Singer 405 feet off the yellow stripe atop the wall in center, had three hits. It was his eighth multiple-hit game in his 27-game big-league career and it extended his on-base streak to 23 straight starts, the longest active streak in baseball.
He’s hitting .333 on the season with a .963 OPS.
“We were still in the game,” Hinch said. “I know the way it kind of bled out for the rest of the game it didn’t seem like it. But it was a 6-2 game and we had runners on base.”
BOX SCORE: Reds 9, Tigers 2
In six starts this season, Flaherty has a 5.33 ERA with 22 walks and four hit-batsmen in 25.1 innings.
That was the last thing the Tigers’ bullpen needed.
Drew Anderson, who pitched a scoreless inning Friday, was pressed into emergency duty.He ended a base-loaded mess in the sixth getting Spencer Steer to bounce into a 6-4-3 double-play and he struck out the side in the seventh.
He gave up a solo homer to T.J. Friedl leading off the eighth, but he ended up striking out five in 2.2 innings.
This story will be updated…
Chris.McCosky@detroitnews.com
@cmccosky
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Tigers’ bullpen getting thin after Reds chase Jack Flaherty early
Reporting by Chris McCosky, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
