All Jack Flaherty did Tuesday night was strike out 11 Arizona Diamondbacks in seven shut out innings while allowing just one hit, a fluke grounder off a turned up piece of turf.
All his team did was give him one run of support, and then proceed to blow leads in the ninth and 13th innings in route to a marathon 19 inning loss.
Dexter Fowler's lead off home run against Mike Leake was the only run the Cardinals could muster while their ace was on the mound.
Is it too much to ask for a little bit of help for this guy?
In September, the Cardinals have scored more than two runs in a game started by Flaherty just once, and that was the Thursday night thriller in Chicago where Flaherty went eight, only allowing one run, and the bullpen ended up undoing all of his work in the ninth.
I mean, he's almost doing it all by himself anyways, but the Cardinals offense has been frustratingly dormant in Flaherty starts.
Overall in 2019, the Cardinals are giving Flaherty an average of 4.01 runs a game. That's the lowest run support of any Cardinals Starter. Miles Mikolas, Dakota Hudson, Michael Wacha and Adam Wainwright have gotten an average of 4.26, 5.28, 5.28 and 5.56 runs per game respectively.
With a 10-8 record, Jack Flaherty should be one of the poster boys for how important it is not to just judge a pitcher based on wins and losses. (I really hope we're past that by now anyways)
In those eight losses, Flaherty has allowed more than three runs just twice. He also has seven no decisions where he's gone at least six innings and allowed two or fewer runs.
What does the man have to do?
Whether it's in Game 1 of the NLDS against the Braves, or the Wild Card Game against the Nationals, Flaherty is going to get his shot to announce his presence in an even bigger way that he has already.
Here's hoping his offense decides to show up.
