ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Right-hander Jack Flaherty is trying to put together a bounce-back season with the Detroit Tigers, and since the start of the regular season, the slider has been a pitch reborn for him.
It has been one of the best sliders in baseball.
But the Tampa Bay Rays executed their game plan against Flaherty’s slider, recording four hits off it on the way to scoring four runs in the first and second innings.
Flaherty settled into his fifth start after adjusting his pitch mix and completed five innings, which allowed the Tigers to rally, but the Rays delivered a comeback of their own.
“I gotta do a better job,” Flaherty said. “That game is on me. That’s what happens when you go five (innings). I gotta go deeper.
Going five just doesn’t get the job done. I gotta be better earlier on. I gotta be out there for (the) sixth. That’s on me.”
The Tigers lost to the Rays, 7-5, in Wednesday’s finale of a three-game series at Tropicana Field. Right-handed reliever Will Vest, who replaced Flaherty, surrendered three runs in the sixth inning.
The Tigers jumped out to a 5-4 lead with RBI singles from Buddy Kennedy and Javier Báez, both with two outs against right-handed reliever Chris Devenski.
The two-run inning was set up by Matt Vierling’s one-out triple to the right-field corner.
“I really like the way we’re playing,” Vierling said. “Even though we didn’t win today, we still won the series, which is a really positive thing for us. I thought we played really well today, but it just didn’t go our way.”
