Angels catch up with Flaherty, beat Tigers 5-2

Chris McCosky, The Detroit News on May 4, 2025

Published in Baseball

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ANAHEIM -- Got him again.

The sixth inning is turning into Jack Flaherty’s biggest nemesis.

He cruised into the sixth inning Saturday, allowing only an unearned run, flummoxing hitters with a nasty knuckle-curveball. He struck out the side in the fifth, that was how good he was throwing.

Then, facing the top of the order for a third time, the wheels came off.

The Angels scored four times in the sixth to beat the Tigers 5-2 at Angels Stadium, ending their seven-game losing streak.

The same thing happened to Flaherty in his start in Houston at the start of this road trip on Monday. He cruised through five and was out of the game after three hitters in the sixth, giving up a two-run homer to Jose Altuve.

On the season, opponents are 11 for 21 and have scored eight runs off Flaherty in the sixth inning.

Flaherty had allowed four hits in the first five innings Saturday. The one run scored when centerfielder Riley Greene and right fielder Kerry Carpenter failed to communicate and bumped into each other on a two-out, routine fly ball by Kyren Paris.

The ball dropped and Travis d’Arnaud scored from third.

Flaherty finished with eight strikeouts, six of them with his knuckle-curve. He got 10 whiffs on 15 swings with that pitch.

But in the sixth, he gave up back to back singles with his four-seamer and with one out he walked d’Arnaud to load the bases.

Luis Rengifo hit a first-pitch knuckle-curve up the middle for a two-run single. Paris ended Flaherty’s night with another RBI single. The fifth run scored on a single by Tim Anderson off reliever Beau Brieske.

The Tigers offense, after unleashing four homers and scoring eight runs in the ninth inning Friday, was hushed by veteran right-hander Kyle Hendricks.

The long-time Chicago Cub has been having a rough time in his first season in Anaheim. Over his previous three starts, he’d been tagged with 15 runs with 10 walks and three homers in 12 innings.

It must’ve been flashback Saturday. He flustered the Tigers for seven-plus innings with his soft mix of sinkers (86 mph), change-ups (87) and curves (72).

Hendricks allowed just two singles and was one batter over the minimum through seven innings and finished with 10 ground ball outs, a vintage performance circa 2016.

Spencer Torkelson finally got him. With one out on the eighth, he launched a slow curveball at the top of zone 401 feet into the left field seats.

It was Torkelson’s 10 th homer.

The Tigers, as they do, made it interesting in the ninth. Against lefty Brock Burke, pinch-hitter Andy Ibáñez singled and went to third on a long double off the wall in center by Gleyber Torres.

The Angels summoned Kenley Jansen, who gave up six of the eight runs in the ninth on Friday. This time the veteran ended the game, getting a run-scoring ground out from Greene and a lineout by Colt Keith.