JUPITER, Fla. (KMOX) - Going up against and defeating a three-time Cy Young award winner sounds about as good as it could get for a 23-year-old pitcher coming off his rookie MLB season. But St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Jack Flaherty wanted a little bit more from his spring training matchup with Max Scherzer and the Washington Nationals, Monday.
Flaherty was hoping he could take a few hacks against Scherzer himself.
"I asked for it the other day because I knew that he was throwing and knew he was going to be hitting," Flaherty told KMOX's Tom Ackerman after Monday's game. "I asked for it, but I forgot to beg and plead for it. But you know I wanted to get in there today, but I don't think I tried hard enough."
The Nationals ace, who is a Chesterfield native, went 0-2 at the dish with a strikeout and a soft ground ball back to Flaherty.
Flaherty took the win, pitching five innings and allowing one run on three hits with five strikeouts. St. Louis put up three runs on Scherzer in the 3-2 victory.
