Flaherty notches first pro complete game

No matter where on the map he's pitching, Jack Flaherty wants to stay on top of his consistency. So far in April, the St. Louis' No. 2 prospect is doing just that and more.
Flaherty tossed his first professional complete game, yielding two runs -- one earned -- on two hits and one walk while fanning six to lead Triple-A Memphis to a 6-2 win over Omaha in Game 1 of a doubleheader at Werner Park. The 22-year-old, who has gone seven frames in consecutive starts, lowered his ERA to 2.25.  

"It feels good to go deep in a game any time -- beginning of the season, end of the season, it just means things are going well," Flaherty said. "And I'm just trying to keep that into next start and keep starts like this going."
Staying in sync with his batterymate, third-ranked Cardinals prospect Carson Kelly, the 6-foot-4, 205-pound right-hander felt he had the right plan in place against Omaha's lineup.
"It felt good, it's good to work with Carson," Flaherty said. "He's really good back there. We're constantly communicating about what we want to do. I feel like we have a pretty good rhythm. Just with pitch calling, he put down what I wanted and we just kind of rolled from there. The defense was really good all day [No. 12 Yairo Muñoz] had some really big plays at short -- he covered a lot of ground. Just all in all, it was just a good day for everybody."
MLB.com's No. 38 overall prospect filled in for the Cardinals in spot start on April 3, surrendering one run on six hits with nine strikeouts against the Brewers. In three outings since being optioned back to Memphis, Flaherty (3-0) sports a 0.75 WHIP with 22 strikeouts in 20 innings. Through 18 appearances in Triple-A the past two seasons, the California native has allowed more than three runs in only one start.
Gameday box score
On Thursday, Flaherty retired 11 of 26 hitters with three pitchers or fewer while hitting the strike zone with 67 of 95 overall pitches. 
"I felt really comfortable and I was just looking to get some really quick outs," he said. "They're a team that likes to put the ball in play, so I was just trying to induce some soft contact. They hit some balls at guys and the team was able to make some plays."
Flaherty set down the first 10 Omaha batters before Ramón Torres reached on a fielding error by right fielder Adolis García. After No. 7 Royals prospectHunter Dozier was plunked on the first pitch of his at-bat, Ryan O'Hearn laced a double into center field to plate both runners. The righty got Frank Schwindel to ground out to short and Tyler Collins to fly out to left to avoid further damage. 
"You've gotta remember that you've pitched in situations like that before at some point during your career," Flaherty said. "At almost all points of your life, you've pitched in these situations. When things kind of spiral out of control, you've gotta remember to just execute your pitches and work toward executing that next one. I made a mistake to O'Hearn, he put a good swing on it with the double. But I just worked on executing and getting that next guy out and try to stop the bleeding and minimize the damage."

After cruising through the fifth and sixth on 29 pitches, Flaherty walked O'Hearn to start the seventh and gave up a one-out single to Collins. Unfazed, the 2014 first-round pick induced flyouts from Nick Dini and Jack Lopez to close the book on the game. 
"The key is to keep those guys off the bases because they like to run," he said. "They're a running team, so I was really trying to keep the leadoff hitter off base and try to be as good as possible. Carson's very good back there -- he can really throw it. But any time you get the leadoff guy out, it makes an inning a lot easier."
On the other side of the ball in Game 1, Wilfredo Tovar homered and drove in five runs while Kelly singled, walked twice and scored two runs for the Redbirds. In the nightcap, Garcia belted a two-run dinger in the fourth inning to lead Memphis to a 2-1 win and twinbill sweep. 

Rehabbing Royals catcher Salvador Perez finished 1-for-4 and nabbed two attempted base stealers from behind the dish in the Redbirds' 2-1 Game 2 victory for the Storm Chasers.