LOS ANGELES -- Jack Flaherty was poised to join some of baseball’s best arms in the history books when he stepped onto the mound at Dodger Stadium. But as the Friday night sunset faded into a dark sky, the likelihood of history dwindled along with it. 

On the heels of securing his 30th consecutive start with six hits or fewer, the right-hander surrendered five runs on seven hits in the Cardinals’ 7-3 loss to the Dodgers. The loss also marked St. Louis’ ninth consecutive series-opener loss this season, which set a franchise record.

For the first time since mid-September 2020, Flaherty allowed more than six hits in a start, snapping the longest active streak in MLB, which had also set a franchise record. 

The right-hander located his slider well against the Dodgers, but softly hit balls ultimately prevented him from tying Nolan Ryan and Shohei Ohtani for fifth place on MLB’s all-time list. 

"It's the game sometimes. Sometimes you run into that. There are some two-strike pitches that I probably want back,” Flaherty said. “I felt like I was, for the most part, in a good spot with counts, in getting ahead and whatnot. There’s some good pitchers, but sometimes that’s just the game.”

Though the offense showed it was on par with Los Angeles early in the game, the damage in the box score was too deep for the St. Louis lineup to dig out of. 

“[Dustin May is] a good pitcher who settled in,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. “We were able to take the lead early, take a couple of bags and create a little bit of chaos. But overall, he settled in.” 

After the two-run first inning, the Cardinals went scoreless until the ninth inning, when Lars Nootbaar pushed across a run.

Flaherty was staked to the early lead on a wild pitch that scored Nootbaar, and a Willson Contreras sacrifice fly that drove in Paul Goldschmidt. The lead, however, was cut in half on Flaherty’s fifth pitch of the game when Mookie Betts connected on an 82.4 mph slider and drove it 391 feet to left field, per Statcast. 

Flaherty racked up seven strikeouts in 4 2/3 innings before he exited the game with the bases loaded. He finished the night at 110 pitches with 68 landing for strikes.  

“Jack did a nice job as his pitch count got up there,” Marmol said. “Overall, when you look at what actually happened, there were a lot of [soft-hit] balls in play that cost a couple of runs.”

Goldschmidt, on the other hand, did etch his name into the baseball’s history books. During the fifth inning with Nolan Arenado at the plate against May, the reigning NL MVP stole third base to notch his 150th stolen bag in his career. He joined Jeff Bagwell as the only first basemen in MLB history to record 300 career home runs and 150 stolen bags.

Prior to the game, St. Louis made a last-minute change, penciling in Dylan Carlson to hit ninth, as outfielder Tyler O’Neill was scratched from the lineup after he experienced back tightness during batting practice. He is considered day to day. 

“It really sparked up during batting practice,” O’Neill said postgame. “I guess these things happen once in a while. It was just a little too stiff for me; I just couldn't get to a point up front in my rotation where I felt that I was comfortable going into a full swing.”