Jack Flaherty, Tigers shut down powerful Cubs in series finale

Chris McCosky, The Detroit News on Jun 8, 2025

Published in Baseball

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DETROIT — Jack Flaherty locked down one of the most potent offenses in baseball for six innings Sunday, helping the Detroit Tigers take down the Chicago Cubs 4-0 in the rubber match of the three-game series before another sellout crowd (40,343) at Comerica Park.

The three games against the Cubs drew 121,509.

Flaherty tied Cubs hitters in knots with a clever mix of well-placed four-seam fastballs, knuckle-curves and sliders. He allowed two hits over his six innings with nine strikeouts.

The Cubs whiffed on eight of 16 swings at the knuckle-curve. Five of his nine strikeouts were with that pitch. Conversely, with the hitters focused on the spin, Flaherty stole 17 called strikes with a four-seam fastball that he was locating on the edges and especially at the bottom of the strike zone.

He had to work out of trouble in two innings, especially in the fourth when he briefly lost command and walked three. He got bailed out by a textbook defensive play.

With runners at first and second, Pete Crow-Armstrong lashed a single to right. Kerry Carpenter fielded it cleanly and threw one-hop strike to catcher Dillon Dingler. Dingler made a quick tag on Ian Happ, who tried to make a swing move at the plate.

After allowing a leadoff double to Dansby Swanson in the fifth, Flaherty struck out Nico Hoerner on a disputed fastball that looked to be out of the zone, and Matt Shaw, before retiring Happ to end the inning.

Hoerner and Cubs manager Craig Counsell were both ejected by home plate umpire Derek Thomas for arguing the call on Hoerner.

As for the Tigers’ offense, well, sometimes you just need to break the seal.

That was certainly the case for Riley Greene. He came into the game leading baseball in strikeouts and had whiffed in all four of his at-bats Saturday. But a bloop double with two outs in the third inning seemed to shake the monkey off his back.

He came up again in the fifth and lined a two-run single, doubling the Tigers lead.

In the seventh, he hit a ball 406 feet to dead center, 105 mph off the bat, but Crow-Armstrong was able to catch it in front of the wall.

Greene struck out in his first at-bat Sunday. The Tigers had runners at second and third and it looked like they were going to squander an early scoring chance. Spencer Torkelson didn’t let that happen.

He rescued the inning with a two-run double off the wall in right-center.

Carpenter had a big day at the plate, as well, with a single and a pair of doubles. He didn’t seem to be running comfortably and was lifted for a pinch-runner in the seventh. He has been playing through some stiffness in his hamstring the last week.

And so ends another grueling patch of the schedule for the Tigers (43-24). The win completes their second run of 23 games in 24 days this season.

They went 15-8 in their first 23-in-24 stretch and 14-9 in this one. And the good news, they won’t have another stretch like this the rest of the season. In fact, they will be off on the next three Mondays.

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