As I write this, Jack Flaherty is doing Jack Flaherty things against the Royals, meaning he is dominating with a mix of pitches that makes one think he just might go full Kluber one of these days, while still being about 15% less efficient than you would like. His strikeout to walk ratio on the night is now 7:1, yet his strike to ball ratio is not in that same dominant range. Still, he’s shutting out a bad Kansas City club, which is what badass dudes with badass repertoires should do to bad clubs.
At the same time, the Cardinal offense is doing Cardinal offense things against the Royals, meaning they’re making a deeply mediocre pitching staff look mighty good, while somehow simultaneously taking near-universally competitive, even praise-worthy at-bats.