St. Louis Cardinals: Flaherty rights the ship in the rotation

The St. Louis Cardinals were in need of some stability in the rotation and Jack Flaherty provided that on Wednesday with a stellar start.

The first turn through the rotation didn’t go so well for the St. Louis Cardinals. Other than a great three innings from Carlos Martinez and a solid starts from Daniel Ponce de Leon and John Gant, fans were not at ease with how things were going.

The offense had been holding up their end of the bargain, but starting pitching was the biggest reason why the Cardinals lost their first series of the season against the Cincinnati Reds.

Through the first three games, the team’s top three starters went a combined 13 innings and gave up 16 runs. That all started with Jack Flaherty’s start on a chilly Opening Day in Cincy.

However, things got better for the Cardinals when they headed to Miami as Gant and Ponce combined for just one earned run over 9.0 innings in the first two games against the Marlins. This was better but still a Cardinal starter hadn’t made it into the 6th inning.

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On Wednesday, Jack Flaherty changed that.

Over 6.0 innings, he allowed just one hit while striking out six Marlins, holding them back until the offense could score some runs. While Flaherty wasn’t perfect with his four walks, this was a huge improvement over the first start of the year. The only hit Flaherty gave up was to the first batter of the game and rolled from there on out.

Big homers from Yadier Molina and Dylan Carlson did enough to get the Cards the win and sweep over the Marlins, but the most important trend to watch was the better starting pitching, especially from the team’s ace.

Kwang Hyun Kim was with the team on Wednesday after throwing a sim game Tuesday and will soon be back with the team. In the meantime, the Cards look to Adam Wainwright to impress in the home opener against the Brewers.