Detroit, MI
Detroit Tigers at Arizona Diamondbacks: What time, TV channel is desert duel on?
Detroit Tigers (22-22) at Arizona Diamondbacks (21-24)
When: 6:10 p.m. Monday.
Where: Chase Field in Phoenix.
TV: Bally Sports Detroit, MLB Network outside Detroit market. (Have Xfinity but still looking for a way to watch BSD? Here are some other options.)
Radio: WXYT-FM (97.1). (Tigers radio affiliates).
Probable pitchers: Tigers RHP Jack Flaherty (0-3, 3.88ERA) vs. Diamondbacks RHP Zac Gallen (5-2, 2.86).
Weather: Indoors.
• Box score
Tigers lineup: TBA.
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Game notes: How many American Cy Young candidates can one team have?
Asking for a friend, whose name certainly doesn’t rhyme with Mack Blaherty. Look, Tarik Skubal is absolutely the front-runner, especially after Friday night’s performance in which he retired the first 13 batters he faced. And Reese Olson’s campaign is starting to pick up steam, even if he can’t pick up any victories.
And then there’s Mack Blaherty … er, Jack Flaherty, whose first season could hardly be going better. Ignore his 3.38 ERA (which is actually pretty good, when not compared to the aforementioned Tigers), and check out his 2.95 FIP. (That’s Fielding Independent Pitching — a measure of the three things pitchers can control — homers, strikeouts and walks.) Flaherty entered Friday ranked 11th among qualified AL starters, ahead of previous Cy Young winner Corbin Burnes (3.52, 20th) and just a bit behind teammates Olson (2.52, fourth) and Skubal (2.01, first).
Flaherty is also racking up the strikeouts; his 63 were good for third entering Friday (though Skubal shot past him against the D’backs). And walks? Flaherty has issued just six, third-fewest among AL starters qualified for the ERA title (behind only Tampa Bay’s Zach Eflin, with four, and Seattle’s George Kirby, with five). Take them together, and Flaherty has a ridiculous 10.50 strikeout-to-walk ratio, No. 1 in all of baseball. If Flaherty can keep up that pace, he’d finish third in MLB’s modern era —dating back to 1900 — behind only Bret Saberhagen (11.00 with the Mets in 1994) and Phil Hughes (11.63 with the Twins in 2014).
Of course, Flaherty is stuck behind the same wall as Olson — he has yet to pick up a victory in his eight starts, thanks to poor relief pitching and a lack of run support. Normally, we’d note the latter might not be a problem against the Diamondbacks, who entered Friday allowing 4.55 runs a game, 11th-most in the majors this season. But they’ll be sending ace Zac Gallen to the Chase Field mound tonight.
Flaherty’s opponent, Zac Gallen, knows something about Cy Young talk; the right-hander is coming off back-to-back top-five finishes in NL Cy Young voting, including a third-place nod last season, when he had a 3.47 ERA with 220 strikeouts and 47 walks in 210 innings. His ERA has been better this season, at 2.86, but the peripherals have dropped off a bit, at 45 strikeouts and 14 walks in 44 winnings, for an FIP of 3.57 (good for 17th in the NL).
After tonight’s game, the Tigers and Diamondbacks wrap up their series at 4:10 p.m. Sunday with righty Matt Manning taking on lefty Jordan Montgomery. After that, the Tigers zip east to open their three-game series against the Kansas City Royals on Monday night, while the D’backs head west for a three-game set against the NL West-leading Dodgers in Los Angeles.
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Live updates
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Contact Ryan Ford at rford@freepress.com. Follow him on X (which used to be Twitter, y’know?) @theford. Read more on the Detroit Tigers and sign up for our Tigers newsletter.