LOS ANGELES — Nine years ago, when the Dodgers faced off against the Mets in the 2015 NLDS, in the crowd at Dodger Stadium was a lifelong Dodgers fan who didn’t know it yet but would one day get to play October baseball for his hometown team.
That fan was Jack Flaherty.
The biggest question for the Dodgers going into the NLCS — just as it was heading into this postseason — was could their starters pitch well enough to give them a chance? And for Game 1 of the NLCS, Flaherty, who went to Harvard Westlake High School just 30 minutes away from Dodger Stadium, got the ball for L.A. with hopes of matching Yoshinobu Yamamoto and keeping up the momentum from the NLDS.
“You can’t really put it all into words, but the most important part was coming out here and setting the tone,” Flaherty said afterward. “But to be here and have some family in the stands and see some of them beforehand, it kind of lets you relax a little bit.”
Flaherty not only set the tone Sunday, but he also turned in his best start of the season in the Dodgers’ 9-0 victory over the Mets, twirling a two-hit shutout and giving L.A. a 1-0 series lead.
“This is certainly a childhood dream for him,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “You vet a guy, and you just feel that he can handle this market, handle pitching in a playoff game, starting a playoff game, so that wasn’t going to be a surprise for us. … The moment just isn’t gonna get too big for Jack.”
The Dodgers’ right-hander came out in Game 1 of the NLCS with a different feel than in his NLDS Game 2 start against the Padres. Flaherty grinded through at-bats against San Diego, but against the Mets, he got into a rhythm early, retiring the first nine hitters he faced.
On a night when he had very little traffic on the bases, the inning that could have changed the rhythm of the game came in the fourth. New York finally got something going with the top of the order when Francisco Lindor led off with a walk. Flaherty found a way to tightrope out of trouble, striking out the next hitter, Mark Vientos.
Two batters later, Pete Alonso walked to add pressure in the inning, but Flaherty was unfazed, as he would be the rest of the night. He induced a lazy flyout from Starling Marte to end the threat.
“I felt like I kind of figured some things out over the last couple days, just working through things,” Flaherty said postgame. “I felt like my stuff against San Diego was OK. But even in that game, I was able to get some…