Dodgers' Flaherty ties playoff record with woeful Game 5 start

With their backs against the wall, the New York Mets lit up Los Angeles Dodgers starter Jack Flaherty in record fashion in Game 5 of the NLCS.

Four days after he shut down the Mets in the series opener, Flaherty tied a playoff record Thursday by allowing eight runs without a strikeout during his three innings of work.

Things started unraveling almost immediately when Pete Alonso launched a three-run homer in the first inning.

After a clean second inning, the Mets exploded in the third for five more runs as Flaherty was left on the mound to eat the damage. Starling Marte plated two with a double, followed by Francisco Alvarez's run-scoring single and Francisco Lindor's RBI triple.

Brandon Nimmo added an RBI single to make it 8-1 for New York.

Flaherty is the fourth pitcher to surrender eight runs with no strikeouts in a playoff start, joining Tom Glavine in the 1992 NLCS, David Wells in the 2002 ALDS, and Matt Clement in the 2005 ALDS, per Stathead. He also matched a Dodgers single-game playoff record for runs allowed.

The disastrous outing raised Flaherty's postseason ERA to 7.04 over three starts. His velocity was noticeably down over the course of the outing, and he recorded just two whiffs, according to Doug McKain of Dodgers Nation.

"He wasn't sharp, clearly. He's been fighting something. He's been under the weather a little bit," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said postgame, according to The Associated Press. "So I don't know if that bled into the stuff, the velocity. I'm not sure."

Flaherty was replaced by Brent Honeywell to start the fourth inning.