ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - The St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago White Sox, and Atlanta Braves will all have something in common on Opening Day this year. Each of their starting pitchers played on the same high school team.
Former Harvard-Westlake School students Max Fried of Atlanta, Chicago’s Lucas Giolito, and St. Louis’ Jack Flaherty will each get the ball on Opening Day.
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All three played on Los Angeles' Harvard-Westlake's 2012 baseball team and were drafted in the first round of the MLB Draft (Friends and Gioloto in 2012 and Flaherty in 2014).
“That’s crazy,” Fried told MLB.com. “I’m really happy and really excited for those guys. They worked extremely hard to put themselves in that position. To be in that position and share that feeling with those guys is pretty cool.”
Flaherty, 25, finished fourth in the National League Cy Young Award voting in 2019 and hopes to bounce back from a disappointing (and complicated) 2020, pandemic-stricken season. He has recorded a 3.37 ERA in four seasons.
Giolito, 26, thew a no-hitter last August and has posted a 3.43 ERA in the past two years, earning American League Cy Young votes each year. And Fried, 27, finished fifth in last year's Cy Young race with a 7-0 record and 2.25 ERA.
Flaherty and the Cardinals will face the Cincinnati Reds on Thursday to start the season.
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