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Detroit Tigers' Jack Flaherty flirts with no-hitter in 5-0 win over Boston Red Sox
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- Detroit Tigers' Jack Flaherty flirts with no-hitter in 5-0 win over Boston Red Sox
BOSTON — Detroit Tigers right-hander Jack Flaherty took a no-hitter into the seventh inning against the Boston Red Sox on Thursday night at Fenway Park.
Flaherty lost the no-hitter with one out in the seventh inning, a result of Rob Refsnyder winning a nine-pitch battle by hitting a line-drive single into left field.
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Thanks to Flaherty, the Tigers took down the Red Sox, 5-0, in the first of four games in the series.
It was a brilliant 104-pitch performance.
Flaherty, who signed a one-year, $14 million contract in free agency, allowed just one hit and one walk across 6⅔ scoreless innings. He racked up nine strikeouts along the way, finishing those hitters with six fastballs and three sliders.
Tigers pitcher Jack Flaherty pitches against the Red Sox during the first inning on Thursday, May 30, 2024, at Fenway Park.
He lowered his ERA to 3.46 in his 11th start.
The Tigers (28-28) have won five of their last six games.
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Flaherty retired the first 12 batters before walking Rafael Devers on seven pitches to open the fifth inning.
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He bounced back from the walk with back-to-back strikeouts, with Connor Wong whiffing at a slider and Garrett Cooper whiffing at a fastball. The Red Sox stranded Devers when Reese McGuire grounded out.
First baseman Spencer Torkelson showcased what might've been the best defensive play of his career to open the sixth inning. Vaughn Grissom tried to sneak a ground ball into the right field, but Torkelson traveled to his right and made a back-handed diving stop to keep the ball in the infield.
Torkelson threw sidearm from a knee to Flaherty, who covered first base. The Torkelson-Flaherty duo beat Grissom by a step to first base for the first out in the sixth.
The Red Sox put pressure on Flaherty in the seventh inning, beginning with Wilyer Abreu working Flaherty for six pitches before striking out on a slider below the strike zone.
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The next batter forced Flaherty to battle for nine pitches.
On the ninth pitch, Refsnyder smoked a middle-middle 94.5 mph fastball into left field to break up Flaherty's no-hit bid with one out in the seventh.
Tigers left fielder Akil Baddoo reacts after hitting a home run during the fifth inning against the Red Sox on Thursday, May 30, 2024, at Fenway Park.
Flaherty got Devers to fly out for the second out, and once that happened, manager A.J. Hinch removed him from the game. He received an applause from the Red Sox fans on his walk back to the dugout.
Right-handed reliever Alex Faedo induced an inning-ending groundout to end the seventh inning.
For his 104 pitches, Flaherty unloaded 51 fastballs (49%), 31 sliders (30%), 21 curveballs (20%) and one changeup (1%). He generated 15 whiffs on 48 swings — a 31.3% whiff rate — with five fastballs, seven sliders and three curveballs.
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The Red Sox missed seven times on 12 swings against Flaherty's MLB-best slider.
Three homers over Green Monster
Both starting pitchers — Flaherty for the Tigers, right-hander Nick Pivetta for the Red Sox — took no-hit bids into the fifth inning.
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Akil Baddoo , recently recalled from Triple-A Toledo, broke up Pivetta's no-hit bid with one out in the fifth inning, launching a solo home run over the Green Monster.
Baddoo slugged a the first pitch he saw in the plate appearance, a down-and-away cutter, to the opposite field. It was one of four cutters thrown by Pivetta.
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He hit the ball with a 107.1 mph exit velocity.
It marked Baddoo's first homer of the season in his fourth game.
The Tigers extended their lead from 2-0 to 4-0 in the eighth inning when Riley Greene launched a two-run home run over the 37-foot-high Green Monster in left field. He jumped a first-pitch cutter from right-handed reliever Chris Martin and drove the ball the opposite way.
It was Greene's first homer since May 6.
Greene has 10 home runs in 55 games this season.
Moments later, Gio Urshela recorded his first home run in 369 days, going back to May 27, 2023, with a solo home run over Green Monster — the fan fumbled the ball back into the field of play — for a 5-0 advantage with two outs in the eighth inning.
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Urshela turned on Martin's two-strike fastball for the pull-side homer.
Strikeout king
Pivetta came a strike away from breaking a Red Sox record set by legendary pitcher Roger Clemens. With two strikes, Greene grounded out to the second baseman to open the fourth inning.
The weak groundout snapped Pivetta's strikeout streak at eight batters, which tied Clemens' record set in 1986.
Here's how Pivetta achieved eight strikeouts in a row: Mark Canha (swinging strike, sweeper) and Urshela (called strike, fastball) in the first inning, Colt Keith (called strike, sweeper), Baddoo (called strike, fastball) and Torkelson (swinging strike, sweeper) in the second inning, Javier Báez (swinging strike, sweeper), Carson Kelly (swinging strike, sweeper) and Matt Vierling (swinging strike, sweeper) in the third inning.
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Clemens set the Red Sox record, which Pivetta tied, on April 29, 1986, the day he became the first of three MLB pitchers to strike out 20 batters in nine innings.
Pivetta, though, finished with nine strikeouts in 5⅓ innings. He allowed two runs on three hits and two walks, throwing 92 pitches. The Tigers chased him and took a 2-0 lead in the sixth inning with Canha's RBI single, set up by Kelly's leadoff triple.
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold .
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers' Jack Flaherty flirts with no-hitter in win vs. Red Sox
