EST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Jack Flaherty wanted this one.
On an afternoon when it would not have been a surprise to find him throwing in a B-game on a backfield to better shield his pitches from a National League opponent the Cardinals are seeing so much of during this pandemic-affected spring schedule, Flaherty instead lobbied to appear on Wednesday’s main stage.
“He always wants the head-to-head, front-and-center competition,” Cardinals manager Mike Shildt said. “Always.”
Competing against future Hall of Famer and could-have-been Cardinal Max Scherzer offered Flaherty an opportunity that has become quite rare in this year’s Grapefruit League play, which has been filled with shortened games and rolled-over innings and all kinds of other things that don’t feel like real, honest baseball.
While backfield tune-ups can be used for tinkering with pitch grips and arm angles against mostly minor league competition, Wednesday’s main-stage Grapefruit League game between the Cardinals and the Nationals at the Ballpark of the Palm Beaches presented Flaherty a chance to practice finding that fine line between firing up for a challenge and not letting the flame leave singe marks on his performance.
It was the best pitcher in the National League versus the 25-year-old who should prove this season he is the best pitcher in the National League Central.
“Not a fair fight,” Shildt said after the Cardinals dropped the exhibition game 3-2.
He was not referring to the Scherzer-Flaherty clash.
He was referring to the hitters — on both sides.
Scherzer carved through the Cardinals during his three scoreless innings. He refused to give up a single hit or walk as he totaled five strikeouts on 42 pitches. Every one of his innings went 1-2-3, and the second went strikeout-strikeout-strikeout. If it wasn’t for the signature grunts the former Mizzou Tiger growled from the mound, you would have thought it was easy for him.
“He came out and did what he normally does,” an impressed Flaherty said about Scherzer. “Attacked the zone. Filled it up. He’s a fun guy to watch pitch.”
Then Flaherty expanded on something he’s spent time on this spring.
“When you are out there competing, going against a guy like that, you have to remember to stay within yourself, to do what you do best,” Flaherty said. “You can’t try to overdo things, or try to match a guy like that. If you do what you do best, you are going to be all right. It’s good in spring when you get situations like that. You can work on the mental part of the game, as well as the physical.”
Both parts of Flaherty’s game looked strong.
Showing a better feel for his breaking balls and placing a higher percentage of pitches over and around the plate, he retired the Nationals 1-2-3 on non-threatening flies and pop-ups in the first inning.
In the second, he struck out Kyle Schwarber swinging, Josh Harrison looking and erased a walk to Alex Avila with a grounder that the combination of Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt made disappear.
Another 1-2-3 inning followed for Flaherty, meaning he and Scherzer combined to see a total of just 19 hitters during the first three frames.
“I loved the way his fastball had that nice little ride to it,” Shildt said about his opening-day starter. “His slider was not trying to do too much. He was letting it work for him on the plate.”
Scherzer exited after the third.
Flaherty returned for the fourth.
Trea Turner led off with a single. Starlin Castro followed with a two-run homer over the left-field wall. And?
Flaherty responded by striking out Schwarber looking, coaxing an easy grounder out of Harrison and striking out Avila looking. Pretty good recovery.
“Castro got into one, but you’re talking about two guys looking sharp with all of their pitches working,” Shildt said about the Scherzer-Flaherty showcase. “Really encouraged with Jack. That was Jack Flaherty to a T. Really nice job. Good pace. In command of what he was doing. Misses where he wanted them. It was excellent work, with excellent stuff.”
At just the right time.
The better Flaherty can be when games that count begin, the better the Cardinals will be at overcoming their recent rotation-related turbulence.
Miles Mikolas’ shoulder issue will force him to miss at least his first start of the regular season, and that news combined with the team’s decision to send rotation candidate Alex Reyes to the bullpen places more importance on sometimes-unreliable Carlos Martinez and the young pitchers who are still auditioning for the fifth spot.
It’s getting easy to daydream about the Cardinals’ bullpen, which now includes power arms in Jordan Hicks, Ryan Helsley, Genesis Cabrera and Reyes.
But a stellar bullpen isn’t much help if starters are handing deficits over to the relievers. (Did you hear that, lineup?)
The Cardinals do not sound like a team poised to add a starter, at least not yet. What they sound like is a team intrigued by seeing how the sorting of John Gant, Johan Oviedo, Jake Woodford and Daniel Ponce de Leon turns out first. (Don’t rule out Oviedo prematurely.) This approach means they need to be able to lean on more proven arms in Flaherty, Adam Wainwright and Kwang Hyun Kim, especially as the season lifts off.
“If all the guys go out and be themselves, there is no added pressure,” Flaherty said. “We have a lot of guys that can step in and do a really good job. It’s not like we are hurting for arms.”
Flaherty has talked more than once this spring about finding the best balance between a burning desire to improve and the downside to taking that too far. He wanted to face Scherzer on Wednesday, but he didn’t want to let himself fall into the trap of trying to match him pitch for pitch, grunt for grunt. He saw a chance to test himself, in more ways than one.
He passed.
“On track,” he said.
