Detroit Tigers right-hander Jack Flaherty tied an American League record with seven straight strikeouts to open a game against the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday and finished with a career-high 14 over 6 2/3 innings in a 2-1 defeat. Flaherty matched the record shared by Joe Cowley of the 1986 Chicago White Sox, Carlos Rodón of the 2016 White Sox, Tampa Bay’s Blake Snell in 2018 and Seattle’s Luis Castillo two years ago.
The Twins won their seventh straight game. Pablo Lopez pitched 5 innings and the bats contributed 17 hits as the Twins completed a sweep of the Angels, 11-5.
Every season stands on its own, each one a different story with new characters, altered narratives and changing cliffhangers. This baseball season will show us that again, but the end will be the same: The Twins will be American League Central champions for the fourth time in six seasons, with a record this summer of 88-74. They won't be carried by a rotation that had two of the top starters .
Limited player movement across Major League Baseball this offseason has been no more pronounced than in Minnesota, where the defending AL Central champion Twins have so far claimed a couple of players off waivers and signed a middle reliever coming off an injury. The Twins are among 11 teams who've had nearly all of their games on the Bally Sports networks, whose parent company went into bankruptcy last year. Amazon recently announced it will partner with the Diamond Sports Group in the reformation process, but with spring training less than three weeks away the urgency for clubs like the Twins is clear.