Jack Flaherty and Erick Fedde have been pleasant surprises on otherwise disappointing teams. The right-handers will square off on the mound when the Detroit Tigers host the Chicago White Sox on Friday night to open a three-game series.
Flaherty (4-4, 3.01 ERA) has displayed pinpoint control this season after he signed a one-year deal with Detroit last December. He has racked up 100 strikeouts while walking just 11 across 13 starts.
Flaherty has allowed three or fewer earned runs in each of his last eight outings.
In his last start on Saturday, Flaherty tossed five scoreless innings at Houston. He threw just 73 pitches before exiting with an 11-0 lead. The Tigers pulled Flaherty as a precaution after he had exited his previous start on June 4 with back tightness.
The 28-year-old Flaherty is 0-1 with a 3.72 ERA in two career starts against the White Sox.
Detroit’s offense has turned frigid since Saturday’s 13-5 win. The Tigers have scored a total of three runs during their current four-game losing streak.
Detroit was blanked by Atlanta, 7-0, on Wednesday.
“Right now, we’re not in a good place and when that piles up on you a little bit, even though you try to separate each individual at-bat, it’s tough,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “It’s time to go home. This was not a good trip.”
The Tigers went 1-5 on their road trip and begin a six-game homestand that includes three games against the Philadelphia Phillies.
“It’s rough,” Detroit outfielder Riley Greene said. “It was not a good road trip for us. But we can’t really think about that. We get an off day (Thursday) to relax and reset and just flush it. Then we will show up on Friday ready to get after it.”
Fedde (5-1, 3.09 ERA) has been the winning pitcher in a quarter of the White Sox’ 20 victories this season. He posted a 6-13 record and 5.81 ERA with the Washington Nationals last season.
As with Flaherty, improved control has sparked Fedde’s turnaround with. He has improved his 1.6 strikeout-to-walk ratio last season to 3.6 this year.
Fedde has been sharp for Chicago in his last two starts.
He limited the Seattle Mariners to one run in seven innings on June 10, then held the Arizona Diamondbacks to two runs in six innings on Saturday.
Fedde threw a season-high-tying 108 pitches against Arizona and allowed eight hits, but the White Sox backed him with nine runs.
“My goal for the day was to try to get leadoff guys out and try to minimize the run game. I did a terrible job of that,” Fedde said. “But I was able to minimize, for the most part. It was great the guys gave me a lead, so in the fifth inning when I had first and third I was like, just worry about getting outs at that point. The offense gave me some leeway and I was able to get out of some jams.”
Fedde, 31, has only faced the Tigers once in his career, giving up two runs in 4 2/3 innings on March 31.
Chicago has lost its last two games, falling to Houston 5-3 on Thursday afternoon. The White Sox squandered a 3-1 lead as the Astros scored four runs in the seventh.
–Field Level Media