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 went up and in on Scherzer today. Somewhere, Bob Gibson cackled. #stlcards
— Tom Ackerman (@Ackerman1120) March 12, 2019Flaherty 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.
