Los Angeles Dodgers right-hander Jack Flaherty, who owns a 7.04 ERA through three postseason outings this month, will start Game 1 of the World Series against the visiting New York Yankees on Friday.
He will match up against Yankees ace Gerrit Cole — both of them former Los Angeles-area high school stars.
The Dodgers will go with right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Game 2 on Saturday. According to manager Dave Roberts, right-hander Walker Buehler also will draw a start for Los Angeles, in either Game 3 or Game 4 at New York, with the other of those two contests becoming a bullpen game for the Dodgers.
Flaherty, 29, gave up eight runs on eight hits and four walks in three innings during a loss to the New York Mets in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series on Friday. In his prior two playoff starts this year, he yielded four runs in 5 1/3 innings during a loss to the San Diego Padres in Game 2 of the NL Division Series, then tossed seven shutout innings for a victory in Game 1 of the NLCS.
“Jack’s been really good for us, that last start withstanding,” Roberts said Tuesday.
The manager added about Flaherty and Yamamoto, “I think if you’re looking at kind of both those pitchers and what the potential World Series could look like, just giving both those guys the best opportunity to participate, to pitch, and put them in the best spots possible, as far as days of rest and things like that.”
Flaherty was acquired by the Dodgers in a July trade with the Detroit Tigers. He went 6-2 with a 3.58 ERA in 10 regular-season starts for Los Angeles, capping a year in which he finished 13-7 with a 3.17 ERA in 28 starts.
Yamamoto is 1-0 with a 5.11 ERA in three playoff starts. He didn’t pitch beyond five innings in any of those outings, and five innings was also his maximum in four September starts after he returned from a right shoulder injury that sidelined him for three months.
Buehler is 0-1 with a 6.00 ERA through two postseason starts. He gave up six runs in five innings during a Game 3 loss to the Padres in the NLDS, then blanked the Mets for four innings in Game 3 of the NLCS.
Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman, who has been slowed in the postseason by a right ankle sprain that kept him out of two games, plans to be in the lineup for the World Series opener. He is batting .219 with no homers and one RBI through eight playoff games.
“I don’t think there’s any question on anybody’s mind that I won’t be in the lineup for Game 1,” Freeman said Tuesday.
