KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Playing the ‘what-if?’ game can be a mind-bogging experience for Cardinals players, staff and fans. What if Jack Flaherty, who already was 8-1, hadn’t hurt himself when the Cardinals were half a game to the good in first place on May 31, the day Flaherty went to the sideline for 73 days with a torn oblique muscle?
But ...
The same people who could lament his two-month-plus absence now could allow themselves to fantasize about his nine remaining starts of the season. What if Flaherty goes 8-1 again?
That wouldn’t necessarily mean that the Cardinals would be a playoff team but they certainly would be a more competitive team.
Jack was back at Kauffman Stadium Friday night. He allowed the Royals a broken-bat single by Salvador Perez and an infield hit by Emmanuel Rivera in the sixth. Flaherty walked nobody and struck out five in a brilliant 81-pitch performance over six innings in the Cardinals’ 6-0 win over the Kansas City Royals.
The victory was the Cardinals’ fourth in a row on this trip and sixth in the past seven games and shoved them three games over .500 for the first time since June 5. They have scored four or more runs for nine successive games, a season high.
Nolan Arenado, who hit his 23rd homer, drove in two runs and Tyler O’Neill, who clubbed his 19th home run, accounted for another run in back-to-back fashion with Arenado in the fourth.
Yadier Molina and Paul DeJong drove in runs in the eighth with a single and a sacrifice fly, respectively. Lars Nootbaar crushed his second homer in two days, a 449-foot drive toward the waterfall in right center as he connected off Ervin Santana in the ninth.
Following his splendid six innings, Flaherty gave way to T.J. McFarland, Giovanny Gallegos and Ryan Helsley.
Flaherty’s first inning was an auspicious one as he trotted out a rarely used knuckle curve on a full count to strike out Carlos Santana for the final out of a 20-pitch frame. Perez had prolonged the frame with his two-out, looper to center.
Flaherty needed only 15 pitches to set down the Royals in order in the second as he fanned Hunter Dozier on a slider in the process. Flaherty was throwing his fastball between 93 and 95 mph.
Flaherty’s third inning likewise was pristine, as he cut down his pitches to 13 but still struck out two.
But the Cardinals were held hitless for the first three innings by left-hander Mike Minor, with Tommy Edman coming the closest with a fly ball in the right-center-field gap that center fielder Jarrod Dyson ran down in the first inning.
When the Cardinals’ lineup came around for a second time, the vibe was different. With one out in the fourth, Arenado launched his homer to left on a 2-1 slider. Two pitches later, O’Neill bashed an 0-1 change-up into the center-field greenery an estimated 423 feet away.
Molina then doubled but was stranded. The two-base hit was his 397th, putting him fifth all-time among catchers.
Flaherty had a two-run lead and it then took him just six pitches to dispatch the Royals in the fourth. And Arenado made it 3-0 with a sacrifice fly in the fifth after Jose Rondon and Paul Goldschmidt had singled.
The Royals’ second hit was a disputed one, for a while. Rivera hit a liner toward left-center field. Shortstop DeJong leaped to knock it down and second baseman Edman recovered the ball and threw to first where Rivera was called out but the call quickly was overturned on appeal.
Dyson forced Rivera and, with two out, after Molina had caught Flaherty’s final pitch, he threw out the speedy Dyson trying to steal second and, playfully, encouraged Royals manager Mike Matheny, Molina’s predecessor as Cardinals catcher and his former manager, to challenge. Matheny elected not to.
Flaherty ran his career streak to 20 consecutive scoreless innings against the Royals, against whom he is 4-0 with an 0.72 earned run average.
McFarland allowed singles to Dozier and pinch hitter Hanser Alberto in the eighth but Gallegos halted that rally with a fly ball and strikeout. He walked Whit Merrifield to load the bases but got Lopez to fly to center fielder Harrison Bader.
