Reds slam Jack Flaherty, KO Tigers with six-run fifth inning

Chris McCosky, The Detroit News on Jun 14, 2025

Published in Baseball

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

DETROIT — Saturdays have not been kind to the Tigers. Plain and simple.

The 11-1 thumping they took from the Reds at Comerica Park was their seventh straight Saturday loss. That’s 27% of their losses.

Go figure.

In this one, though, they paid the price for violating one of the foundational tenets of their own organizational philosophy: Dominate the strike zone.

Jack Flaherty was cruising along, getting through the first two innings in 20 pitches. Then he started issuing free passes. At first, they were just a nuisance, pushing up his pitch count, causing him some self-inflicted stress.

Elly De La Cruz's 402-foot missile of a home run leading off the fourth had nothing to do with walks. Still, he’d walked two in the third. He walked another in the fourth. And by the time the fifth inning rolled around, he was at 67 pitches and wobbling.

He walked two batters in the fifth, around a couple of singles. One run was in and the bases were loaded. Flaherty’s stress became distress.

Pitching coach Chris Fetter came out to give him a breather. But Reds catcher Tyler Stephenson jumped a first-pitch knuckle-curve and lined it over the bullpen in left field — grand slam home run.

Spencer Steer ended Flaherty’s day two batters later with a solo homer to left-center.

Flaherty, who had allowed just six earned runs in his last five starts covering 30 innings, ended up with seven runs, three homers and five walks on his ledger in just 4 2/3 innings.

Before all that, though, Flaherty and Reds starter Brady Singer were trading zeros when the Tigers ran themselves out of an early lead.

Javier Báez led off the third inning with a walk. Trey Sweeney, who was in a 5-for-52 rut with 17 strikeouts in his previous 21 games, blasted a double into the cutout in right-center.

Third base coach Joey Cora, even though there were no outs and the relay from the outfield went through De La Cruz, who possesses one of the strongest throwing arms in the game, waved Báez home.

De La Cruz’s throw was clocked at 98.3 mph by Statcast. Báez was out by a lot.

Aggressive base running has been a big part of the Tigers’ success. They lead baseball in successfully going first to third (54 times) and with a 55% success rate on extra bases taken.

But this one was ill-advised. Kerry Carpenter was thrown out at the plate Friday night, as well.

The Reds piled on in the eighth against veteran John Brebbia. They scored three runs off him in the ninth inning Friday (he only got one out), and in the eighth inning Saturday, No. 9 hitter Matt McLain dinged him with a three-run homer.

Brebbia and manager AJ Hinch had an extended, back-and-forth conversation after the eighth. Catcher Jake Rogers pitched the ninth.