STL Cardinals: Jack Flaherty embraces Joker persona in chaotic first 2023 start

Why so serious, St. Louis Cardinals fans? It may not have been pretty, but Jack Flaherty and the Cardinals offense did enough on Saturday to win.

It felt like Jack Flaherty just wanted to watch the world burn on Saturday afternoon at Busch Stadium, but even when he introduced a little chaos into four of the five innings he threw against the Toronto Blue Jays, he and the St. Louis Cardinals somehow seemed to escape the madness.

The Cardinals also escaped with their first win of the season, with Flaherty and four other St. Louis pitchers combining to hold the Toronto offense to just three hits in a 4-1 victory.

Flaherty’s manic pitching line fit right in with the Joker-themed hype video he put out on social media before taking the mound on Saturday. Through four innings, Flaherty had walked seven of the 19 batters he had faced, yet had not allowed a hit and had a 3-0 lead in his bag of tricks.

After finally setting the Blue Jays down in order in the fifth (the first time it happened for him all game), Flaherty exited the game with one of the strangest no-hitter pitching lines you will see (no hits, seven walks, four strikeouts, and one hit batter). Well, maybe it wasn’t actually that strange after all.

Jack Flaherty’s first Cardinals 2023 start was riddled with inconsistency

He may love the Joker, but it seemed Flaherty was more like the Riddler in the game’s early stages with plenty of questions about why just 30 of his first 65 pitches were strikes (and 49 of his total 95). Riddle me this … what was going on with his control on in a windy, chilly day inside the home of the Redbirds?

“It’s not ideal. It’s not the way you draw things up or the way you expect it to go, but not every start is going to go that way,” Flaherty said. “I was just really all over the place.

“In those middle innings, I kind of just lost it. We had to work with what he had, throwing a lot of spin and they put the ball in play. It was a credit to our guys. I told Nolan (Arenado) after the game, ‘Good job staying locked in,’ because you get a guy out there, and that was me today, who isn’t really filling it up and is all over the place, as a defense, it’s not ideal.”

Cardinals teammates helped Jack Flaherty battle through

Speaking of defense, Flaherty had some help putting together those five no-hit innings, including the defensive play of the day from second baseman Brendan Donovan.

While Flaherty was quick to give praise to his defense for helping him navigate through his struggles, reigning National League MVP Paul Goldschmidt said that he and his teammates saw a lot in Flaherty on Saturday as he battled on the mound.

“You want to be there and you want to make that play because you know how hard all of our pitchers are working,” Goldschmidt said. “He didn’t have his best stuff. That was pretty obvious, but to find a way to get outs was a great job by him. That could have spiraled out of control.”

Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said he was “proud” of Flaherty for what he did on Saturday.

“If you look at that start, he has his C game. He’s not timed up. He’s not synced up. He’s not feeling right as far as just being able to land his stuff and throw the baseball where he wants,” Marmol said. “He still battled through that.  And when you look at his ability to keep his composure, he took a big step in keeping his cool and figuring out a way to make an adjustment rather than letting it snowball.

“That game could have gotten real ugly in a heartbeat.”

Yes, there is even beauty in things that aren’t beautiful on the surface. As Jack Nicholson’s Joker character said in Batman from 1989, “You can’t make an omelette without breaking some eggs.”

Flaherty and the Cardinals controlled the chaos enough on Saturday to even the series … and that’s something that will put a nice, wide smile on any face, even a Joker.