It was far from Flaherty’s best pitch.
It might have been the best thing for his pitching.
“He hit that and I was kind of (ticked) from there,” Flaherty said. “Dialed in. And trusted my stuff after that. I was kind of feeling for it in the beginning. Just stopped that. Trusted my stuff and went from there.”
What followed was Flaherty’s finest start in at least a year — one that mixed assertiveness with his fastball and a nimble use of his breaking stuff. During a pivotal stretch in the Cardinals’ 5-4 victory against San Diego, Flaherty had a sequence of pitches that was his best since returning from shoulder injury.