The Cardinals’ offense is bad enough to make Pirates’ starting pitchers look like Jack Flaherty.
But at least Jack Flaherty is also back to looking like Jack Flaherty.
All it took was facing the Pirates’ batters.
OK, maybe Flaherty would’ve pitched this well against the 1927 Yankees or, even more daunting, the 2020 Yankees (Luke Voit has 21 home runs in only 49 games!). But Flaherty’s start Sunday at Pittsburgh was a had-to-have-it game for him, following his nightmare against Milwaukee.
And also since his next start — in the final full week of the regular season — is against Milwaukee.