Flaherty opened Saturday's 2-0 Grapefruit League win over the Mets and fired two scoreless innings during which he allowed two hits and recorded three strikeouts.
Just named the Opening Day starter, Flaherty put on a performance worthy of the honor against a Mets lineup with several regulars. The right-hander worked around a one-out J.D. Davis double in the first with strikeouts of Brandon Nimmo and Dominic Smith before getting through a relatively uneventful second inning during which he yielded only a single to Luis Guillorme. Flaherty will build his innings/pitch count up over subsequent spring outings ahead of his aforementioned March 26 date with the Reds to kick off the 2020 regular season.