Orioles scratch starting pitcher Jack Flaherty ahead of game with Blue Jays

The Baltimore Orioles have made a pitching change ahead of Wednesday’s game with the Toronto Blue Jays.

Jack Flaherty has been scratched and Dean Kremer will start instead. Kremer was supposed to start the series finale for the Orioles on Thursday and that spot is now listed as ‘To Be Announced.’

The Orioles acquired Flaherty from the St. Louis Cardinals back on August 1 to bolster the team’s starting rotation.

The right-hander held the Blue Jays to one run over six strong innings during his Orioles debut a few days later but has struggled since. He allowed three runs over five innings in his next start against the Houston Astros and was then tagged for seven runs over three innings by the San Diego Padres.

Flaherty has a 7.07 ERA over three starts with Baltimore and a 4.73 ERA across 23 starts with the Cardinals and Orioles this season.

Kremer was one of the players that the Orioles got in return from the L.A. Dodgers when they traded Manny Machado in 2018.

He made his big-league debut in 2020 and has posted mixed results since. In 2022, Kremer had the second-best ERA among Baltimore’s starting pitchers at 3.32. This year, his ERA has ballooned to 4.50 thanks largely to his home runs allowed per nine innings doubling from 0.8 to 1.6.

Kremer has made two starts against the Blue Jays this season and the Orioles won both games. He navigated around nine hits and kept the Blue Jays to one run over five-and-two-thirds innings in Toronto in May and held them to one run on eight hits across six innings in Baltimore in June.

In his most recent start, Kremer allowed three runs over six innings of work against the Padres. That start was on August 16 so Kremer is coming into this outing against the Blue Jays well rested.