LOS ANGELES (KMOX) - St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Jack Flaherty was poised for a big night on Monday against the Los Angeles Dodgers. He was back in his hometown in front of family and friends and pitching with special Kobe Bryant-inspired cleats. But after five solid innings – he left the game with left side tightness.
Even while giving up two runs on only two hits (solo home runs by Gavin Lux and Chris Taylor in the second inning), Flaherty was dominate on the mound with a season-high nine strikeouts. But he didn't come back to pitcher after taking a big hack at the plate in the top of the sixth inning. You can see his reaction after this swing:
St. Louis lost the game 9-4.
Speaking with media after the game, Flaherty was very positive, but knew it wasn't something he could pitch through:
“I don’t ever leave games. I don’t ever come out of games,” Flaherty said. “It was just something just wanted to check out.
"I felt a little tightness and just felt we should check it out more than anything. A little bit of tightness, I felt, and thought it was something to bring up. More just to be safe. I’m sitting here just fine. I’ll get up out of this chair just fine. I’m moving around all right."
The Cardinals will do something further testing on Tuesday.
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"We're hopeful that it's nothing too serious, but obviously it was bothering tonight and impacted him coming out of the game," manager Mike Shildt said.
In Monday's game, Flaherty was wearing purple and gold cleats, in honor of Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, who died in a helicopter crash in January of last year. This was Flaherty's first time pitching in LA since the death of the basketball star Flaherty idolizes.
The 25-year-old was on his way to possibly his ninth win of the year – he currently leads all of baseball in wins with an 8-1 record this year.
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