AL DIVISION SERIES: TIGERS VS MARINERS

October 5, 2025

Jack Flaherty

T-Mobile Park

Detroit Tigers

Pregame 2 Press Conference

Q. Jack, it's been a long time since you guys have played in Detroit. I'm not even sure when the last time was you pitched in Detroit. But just what's it going to be like after such a long, strange, and kind of fun road trip?

JACK FLAHERTY: We'll take it however it comes, you know? I mean, it's been a long time since we've been home, but at the same time it's been a fun kind of bonding experience with these guys. Like, we've spent a lot of time with each other, a lot of time on the road. Families have been traveling a lot. But it's been a -- just a bonding experience with these guys, got some long plane flights, a lot of times in hotels and a couple dinners together.

But it's just been a real kind of bonding experience, so, you know, it will be nice to get back, but we'll take it however we can, and I think this is -- just the opportunity to get a home playoff game is special.

Q. Jack, it seems like you guys have had a pretty good culture all season, but what is it that you think helped you overcome the rough September to be in this position right now?

JACK FLAHERTY: I mean, we had a really good run throughout most of the season, definitely a scuffle down the stretch, but I think just getting in, getting in and making sure we got into the playoffs. We've been playing what seems like playoff games for the entire three weeks, since the middle of September, since things started to get a little bit hairy.

We were still scuffling and whatnot, but we were playing a lot of games, a lot of pressure-filled situations. Once you get in -- I mean, like I said, everybody starts off 0-0. So at that point it doesn't really matter, just comes down to go on out and try to win ball games and remain together.

Q. Jack, just getting back to Comerica Park, obviously you didn't get to experience it last year, but what are you looking forward to the home playoff crowd at Comerica Park, and what are your expectations for your start?

JACK FLAHERTY: It's going to be a lot of fun. Hometown games are incredible. Playoff games in general are incredible. You get to be at home, get the home crowd behind you.

That last series there against Cleveland at home, they were behind us. We didn't perform as well as we would have liked, but it's all in the past now. So you just take that and hopefully, you know, multiply that times a couple.

And, you know, you're hoping for a good atmosphere and a good crowd, and you know Detroit shows up, and it's something I'm looking forward to. You hear about it, so it's something I'm looking forward to and just feeding off of that energy.

Q. What do you think about the Mariners' roster that you're going to have to face? There's a lot of guys over there who have been in the league for a while, just like yourself. What's the level of respect for those guys, and then what's the challenge?

JACK FLAHERTY: A really good team. They're here for a reason. Everybody at this point is a really good team. They have a full roster top to bottom, full lineup top to bottom of guys that are really good and guys that they even made trades for and brought over.

So it's a good team. At the end of the day, it comes to executing pitches, but you've got a lot of respect for guys over there and how good some of those guys are. Cal's been good. Julio. Randy, Josh. You go up and down the team and the rotation too.

But at the end of the day, we've got to take care of what goes on on our end and focus on that. So you've got a lot of -- a ton of respect for them, and you just go out and try to execute pitches the same way you have all year.

Q. When you look at that start and knowing it's a late afternoon start, how do the late afternoon shadows play into a pitcher's mindset when they go about attacking a lineup?

JACK FLAHERTY: I can't really speak for everybody else. For me, it doesn't -- I don't really think about that. I don't really think about the shadows or what it might mean or what it might present.

Maybe those conversations change a little bit in-game, but I think -- you know, Ding and I have gotten better -- at least I have gotten better about being more communicative in games. I'm not really a one who talks a whole lot. I take everything in by staying in my own little world.

But I think those are things that he's going to see and whatnot. And if there any adjustments, there are adjustments. And I think at the end of the day, it just comes down to pitching your game. You can't go change what you're doing because of shadows or anything else. This game comes down to pitching your game, pitching to your strengths, pitching to some of their weaknesses, and execute. That's what it comes down. When you execute, good things happen.

Q. How has that line of communication improved on Dingler's end? How has he come to improve that?

JACK FLAHERTY: There's been a lot of conversations this year. I've been very up and down. I've had some good stretches and some rough stretches, so I've had to be more open to having conversations within a game and just trying to do that.

And he's been really good about trying to talk and wanting to talk to me and everything, and I've had to open up. So it hasn't really been on his end, but on my end, to still stay in my own little world that I kind of have to be in to pitch, but also having those mid-game talks with Fetter and with Ding, just, okay, how do we make this adjustment, what do we need to do next time through, or is there something we're seeing? Are they doing something? Just little things that you pick up on. But Ding, he's been really good.

Q. Jack, what made you realize that or brought that out of you, to be a little more communicative or open?

JACK FLAHERTY: You know, this game's about adjustments, and, you know, when you get -- it's about adjustments, not always -- you don't always have to reinvent things or make huge changes or whatnot. But some of it is just about getting back to being -- to doing the little things that you do well.

And sometimes it's about in-game, like, you know, "Hey, like, am I missing something here? I felt like that was a good pitch. The guy put a good swing on it."

And there's a little bit of a "No, man. Keep doing what you're doing." It's been more of, like, encouragement. "If you do what you're doing" or "Hey, we've got to make an adjustment" and make those things.

But I think if you just get stuck in one way of doing things, and especially if it's not working, that just -- I mean, that's literally the definition of insanity, trying to do the same thing over and over again and expecting something different to happen.

So, you know, if you can have those things -- I mean, it's happened over the course of my career where you go through stretches where I may not have to talk to somebody for an entire year, or there are stretches during a season where I may not talk throughout the entire course of a game, and then there are stretches where it's like, okay. A little adjustment here and there, he saw something, or whatnot.

So it's just the course of the game, course of a career, course of a season. It's all of that.