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    • Dodgers are in good shape in NLCS vs. Mets after Jack Flaherty Game 1 avg
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    Dodgers are in good shape in NLCS vs. Mets after Jack Flaherty Game 1 avg

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    LOS ANGELES — Jack Flaherty grew up in Los Angeles. He pitched at Dodger Stadium in high school and dreamed of one day becoming a Dodger.

    Yet even in his wildest dreams, he never imagined a night like this.

    Flaherty, in one of the best pitching performances in Dodgers postseason history, gave up just two hits in seven shutout innings to lead the Dodgers to a 9-0 loss to the New York Mets in Game 1 on Sunday night of the National League Championship Series at Dodger Stadium.

    “It was,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, “just a pitching clinic.”

    Flaherty’s performance resulted in the Dodgers’ third consecutive shutout this postseason, a feat previously achieved only by the 1966 Baltimore Orioles and the 1905 New York Giants. The Dodgers have now thrown 33 consecutive shutout innings, which is tied ties with the 1966 Orioles for the longest post-season shutout streak. (Baltimore did that against the Dodgers in the 1966 World Series.)

    “What these guys have done is nothing short of incredible,” Dodgers center fielder Kevin Kiermaier said. “I’ve been on teams with great pitching staffs, but to do it consecutively and avoid power plays, I’ve never seen anything like it.

    “I don’t think any of us have done that in the postseason.”

    The Dodgers don’t have Hall of Famer Jim Palmer, or Dave McNally, or four 20-game winners on the same staff as those pitching-rich Orioles of old.

    The Dodgers don’t even have four healthy starters, to tell you the truth.

    Still, the pitching staff has been virtually untouchable since Game 3 of the National League Division Series, when they gave up six runs in the second inning against the San Diego Padres.

    They are yielding a .127 batting average since that inning, at one point retiring 27 batters in a row. The Mets managed just three hits on Sunday, with their top five hitters Francisco Lindor, Mark Vientos, Brandon Nimmo, Pete Alonso and Starling Marte going 0-for-17 with seven strikeouts.

    The Dodgers have been so methodical in eliminating the opposition that rookie Ben Casparius, who entered the game in the ninth inning, had no idea the Dodgers were just one inning away from tying an all-time record.

    “I didn’t know that until I walked into the clubhouse,” Casparius said, reaching into his locker and showing off the authentic baseball. “I have to hold this one.”

    The Dodgers have now used 11 different pitchers during the streak, with Casparius making his postseason debut for the record-tying inning.

    “That is something we are very proud of,” said Casparius. “We don’t openly talk about how dominant we’ve been in the pen because it’s a new game, a new situation, but it’s super special.”

    But actually, this night meant more to Flaherty than it did to anyone else wearing a Dodgers uniform.

    Growing up in LA, Flaherty had old friends from Sherman Oaks Little League and Harvard-Westlake High School in the stands. While his mother sat behind home plate, he threw the game of his life at Dodger Stadium.

    It was his best performance at Dodger Stadium since throwing a six-hit shutout as a junior in the 2017 Harvard-Westlake championship game.

    “Man, those were the days,” Flaherty said, “those are the best days we had. I still have my buddies that I played with, I saw some of them in the stands. Just really cool. It lets you know that you never know how long the kids you play with will remain your friends.

    “I have been lucky enough to have remained friends with some of them for a long time, including some of my best friends. Those guys are family.”

    When Flaherty walked off the field after 98 pitches in the seventh inning, with the sellout crowd of 53,503 sensing he had thrown his last pitch, he was greeted with a thunderous standing ovation as his teammates heckled him in the dugout.

    He couldn’t help but flash a big, toothy grin as he looked back at his mother, who was fighting back tears.

    “You can’t put it all into words,” Flaherty said. “But being able to be here and have some family in the stands, and see some family there when I was warming up, you can just relax a little bit.

    ‘At least, that’s how it was for me tonight.

    “It was hard not to smile.”

    Flaherty, who was gift-wrapped to the Dodgers by the Detroit Tigers at the trade deadline and almost became a Yankee until they objected to his physicality, is now part of Dodgers postseason pitching lore. He used to come to Dodger Stadium to watch his heroes, and now here he is, teammates with his idol, future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw.

    “Regardless of what people want to say about his postseason numbers,” Flaherty said, “he’s had a lot of good ones. And he has been an absolute stud throughout his career.

    “It’s special to get a hug from him afterwards and let me know that it was a very good job. Things you can’t imagine…

    “He takes the ball and wants the ball out every time. You look at him and you get around him, and you look at the way he works, and the way he goes about his business, and it’s even more special. That guy is second to none.”

    Flaherty’s heroics allow the Dodgers to play a bullpen game in Game 2 on Monday, Roberts said, saving starter Walker Buehler for Game 3 and Yoshinobu Yamamoto for Game 4.

    Given the way the Dodgers handled the Mets, with the most lopsided Game 1 shutout win since the Chicago Cubs in 1984, who knows if they even need to schedule the last four games.

    “It’s about playing our game,” said Dodgers All-Star first baseman Freddie Freeman, who is playing with a severely sprained ankle that requires 4½ hours of treatment every day. He produced two more hits, drove in a run and scored a run.

    “For us, it’s not about letting off the gas. It’s about applying pressure,” Freeman said.

    The Dodgers learned it the hard way in 2021 when they won a grueling five-game NL Division Series against the San Francisco Giants. Just when they thought they were going to topple Atlanta in the NLCS, they were defeated in six games and watched Atlanta have a World Series parade while staying home.

    “We learned a lot from that,” Dodgers All-Star right fielder Mookie Betts said. “We beat a really good team, and when we thought we were going to reset, we were going to get back into the flow. It didn’t work that way.

    “So it was a great learning experience for all of us.

    “We know this isn’t over yet.”

    It just felt that way.

    Follow Bob Nightengale on X: @BNightengale

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