Jack Flaherty shines, Shohei Ohtani hits 46th homer in Dodgers win

Because as bad as things look for the Dodgers heading into the final month of the season, it could have been a lot worse.

A world in which the team failed to execute on its buzzer-beater acquisition of Jack Flaherty at the July 30 trade deadline. A world in which the Southland-raised right-handed pitcher never returned to his hometown team. A world in which uncertain post-injury versions of Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow, or an inconsistent post-Tommy John version of Walker Buehler, might be the only established pitcher in a potential postseason rotation.

A world that manager Dave Roberts, when faced with the hypothetical Sunday morning, did not want to imagine.

“It wouldn’t be a nice feeling,” Roberts said of Flaherty’s absence.

Fortunately for Roberts, his team enjoys a different reality.

On Sunday, Flaherty further cemented his position as the Dodgers’ top current starter with a scoreless 7⅓-inning gem against the Cleveland Guardians. Thanks to some help from Shohei Ohtani, who hit the third deck in right field at Dodger Stadium for his 46th home run of the year, the Dodgers were also victorious, winning two of three games this weekend against another first-place club with a 4-0 victory.

“He’s added stability and consistency,” Roberts said of Flaherty afterward. “And today was a pitching clinic.”

It’s worth remembering: Six weeks ago, the Dodgers were minutes away from beating Flaherty.

After negotiations with the Chicago White Sox over Garrett Crochet stalled at the deadline, GM Brandon Gomes was on the phone with the Detroit Tigers right up until the final moments of the deadline, working on a deal that was narrowly completed.

Flaherty was seen at the time as perhaps the best player transferred on the deadline.

But now — with the Dodgers missing Yamamoto (who is scheduled to return Tuesday from a rotator cuff strain), Glasnow (who threw his first bullpen this past weekend since going on the IL last month with elbow tendonitis), Clayton Kershaw (who is still dealing with a bony spur on his big toe) and Gavin Stone (who is still sidelined after going on the IL last Friday with shoulder inflammation) — no move, in retrospect, even remotely approaches its significance.

“You’ve got to have a guy that you think can take on 24 or 25 batters; that if they get stressed once or twice, you can trust that they’ll find a way to deal with it, manage it and move on,” Roberts said. “When you’ve got guys that you’re afraid of (against an opponent) the third time around, it takes a toll on the ‘pen. And that’s a tough way to live. … So to have a guy like Jack, it’s good.”

Flaherty illustrated that Sunday by collecting four hits in a six-strikeout, zero-hit game while pitching nearly three full innings against the Guardians (81-62) and their American League Central-leading lineup.

Even the 104-degree heat, which tied the first-pitch record at Dodger Stadium, didn’t seem to bother him.

“It was fun,” Flaherty said. “When you get such different elements, whether it’s super cold or really hot, it’s just a different challenge.”

With excellent control of the fastball and swing-and-miss secondary stuff — including an improved slider that he said he refined last week — the 28-year-old threw his first scoreless game since making his Dodgers debut on Aug. 3.

He also pitched seven innings for the first time this year and reached the eighth inning for the first time since 2019.

He got some help, including a catch by third baseman Max Muncy in the fourth inning, turning a double play.

“I didn’t know Munce could jump like that,” Flaherty joked.

“Muncy and I have an inside joke because he swears he can dunk a basketball,” Roberts added. “Obviously he’s a bigger guy, but I told him I believe he can dunk a basketball now. He came out pretty good.”

From that point on, however, things largely went well for Flaherty, dropping his overall ERA for the season to 2.86 and with the Dodgers to a minuscule 2.61. He is now 5-1 in his seven starts with the team.

“He went out there and absolutely dominated,” Muncy said of Flaherty. “He put us in a really good position.”

The Dodgers (86-57) certainly needed that kind of dominance on Sunday.

After opening the score in the fourth inning with an RBI single by Will Smith, who tripled in Mookie Betts on the leadoff, the bases were left loaded and the inning ended, with only one more run scored with Flaherty on the mound.

That came thanks to Ohtani, who moved one step closer to MLB’s first 50-50 season by tying his personal record of 46 home runs (and setting a new personal best with 101 RBIs) with a 450-foot (137-meter) homer in the fifth inning, off the 1955 World Series banner beneath the upper deck of the ballpark’s Stadium Club — a spot where no one in the Dodgers dugout had ever seen a ball land.

“I’ve been here a while, but Kersh has been here almost twice as long as I have,” Muncy said, referring to veteran pitcher Clayton Kershaw. “Even he said he’s never seen a ball go to that spot in this stadium. That was pretty cool to see from the dugout.”

The Dodgers added some certainty in the eighth inning when Muncy hit his 12th home run of the year and Chris Taylor hit an RBI single.

But it was Flaherty, above all, who kept the Dodgers in check and continued to shine as a rare — and much-needed — bright spot on the mound.

“Knowing you have a player who can be a stopper or put you in a position to win a series,” Roberts said, “that’s obviously a positive.”

And something that, had Flaherty not arrived at the last minute at the deadline, the Dodgers would have risked going into October without.