Jack Flaherty shines, Shohei Ohtani hits 46th home run in Dodgers win

As bad as the situation looks for the Dodgers pitchers in the final month of the season, things could have been a lot worse in the world.

A world where the team failed to sign Jack Flaherty at the last second at the July 30 trade deadline. A world where the Southland-raised right-hander never returned to his hometown team. A world where uncertain versions of Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow coming back from injuries or an inconsistent version of Walker Buehler post-Tommy John might have been their only established pitcher in a potential postseason rotation.

A world that manager Dave Roberts did not even want to imagine on this hypothetical Sunday morning.

“It,” Roberts said of losing Flaherty, “would not be a good feeling.”

Fortunately for Roberts, his team is experiencing a different reality.

On Sunday, Flaherty cemented his position as the Dodgers' top starter with a scoreless 7⅓ inning gamble against the Cleveland Guardians. Thanks to help from Shohei Ohtani, who hit his 46th home run of the year off the third deck in right field at Dodger Stadium, the Dodgers were also victorious, winning two of three games this weekend by a 4-0 score against another first-place club.

“He brought stability and consistency,” Roberts said of Flaherty afterward. “And today was a pitching clinic.”

It should not be forgotten: six weeks ago, the Dodgers would have missed Flaherty by just a few minutes.

After trade talks with the Chicago White Sox regarding Garrett Crochet stalled at the deadline, general manager Brandon Gomes was on the phone with the Detroit Tigers until the last moment of the deadline, working on a package that was completed just before the deadline.

At the time, Flaherty was considered perhaps the best player to be traded at the deadline.

But now, with the Dodgers missing Yamamoto (who is scheduled to return Tuesday from a rotator cuff strain), Glasnow (who was placed on the injured list over the weekend for the first time since being injured last month with elbow tendonitis), Clayton Kershaw (who continues to battle a bone spur on his big toe) and Gavin Stone (who remains out of action after being placed on the injured list last Friday with shoulder inflammation), no move comes anywhere close to its significance in hindsight.

“You have to have a guy that you believe can beat 24 or 25 batters; that when he's under pressure once or twice, you can trust that he'll find a way to handle it and keep going,” Roberts said. “When you have guys that you're afraid of, [facing an opposing lineup] the third time it gets on the club's nerves. And living like that is hard. … So it's good to have a guy like Jack.”

Flaherty exemplified that on Sunday, allowing four hits in a six-strikeout, zero-walk performance while working his way through the Guardians (81-62) and their American League Central-leading lineup for nearly three complete innings.

Even the heat of 39 degrees Celsius, which set the temperature record for the first pitch at Dodger Stadium, didn't seem to bother him.

“It was fun,” Flaherty said. “When you have such different elements, whether it's super cold or really hot, it just adds another challenge.”

Showcasing outstanding fastball control and his ability to hit the ball with momentum and mishits – including an improved slider that he worked on refining last week – the 28-year-old threw his first scoreless game since his Dodgers debut on Aug. 3.

He also went seven innings for the first time this year and made it to the eighth inning for the first time since 2019.

He had some help, including a diving catch by third baseman Max Muncy in the fourth inning that allowed him to make a double play.

“I didn’t know Munce could jump like that,” Flaherty joked.

“Muncy and I have an inside joke because he swears he can dunk a basketball,” Roberts added. “Obviously he's a bigger guy, but I told him I think he can dunk a basketball now. He's done it pretty well.”

From there, however, things have been largely smooth sailing for Flaherty, and he has been able to lower his overall ERA to 2.86 this season and a minuscule 2.61 with the Dodgers. He is now 5-1 in his seven starts with the team.

“He went out there and absolutely dominated,” Muncy said of Flaherty. “He put us in a really good position.”

In fact, the Dodgers (86-57) needed that dominance on Sunday.

After scoring the first run with Will Smith's RBI single in the fourth inning, which saw Mookie Betts come home on a leadoff triple, they left the bases full at the end of the inning and managed only one more run with Flaherty on the mound.

That was thanks to Ohtani, who took another step closer to his first 50-50 season in MLB by hitting a career-high 46 home runs (and setting a new personal record with 101 RBIs) in the fifth inning with a 450-foot hit from the 1955 World Series banner beneath the upper deck of the ballpark's Stadium Club – a place where no one had ever seen a ball land in the Dodgers' dugout.

“I've been here a while, but Kersh has been here almost twice as long as I have,” Muncy said, referring to veteran pitcher Clayton Kershaw. “Even he said he'd never seen a ball thrown to that spot in this stadium. That was pretty cool to watch from the dugout.”

The Dodgers added extra security in the eighth inning when Muncy hit his 12th home run of the year and Chris Taylor hit an RBI single.

But for the most part, it was Flaherty who kept the Dodgers under control and continued to shine as a rare – and much-needed – bright spot on the mound.

“Knowledge [you have] “A guy who can be a stopper or put you in position to win a series,” Roberts said, “that's obviously a positive thing.”

And without Flaherty's last-minute arrival at the deadline, the Dodgers might have been in danger of heading into October.