Jack Flaherty dominated the New York Mets for seven innings as the Los Angeles Dodgers cruised to a 9-0 victory last night.

LA won the first game of the National League Championship Series at Dodger Stadium.

Flaherty pitched most of the year with the Detroit Tigers, who were floundering in July and traded Flaherty and outfielder Michael Canha at the deadline.

Shockingly, the Tigers caught fire and made a playoff run before finally losing the AL Division Series to the Cleveland Guardians on Saturday.

Flaherty is providing stability to a Dodgers rotation that has been racked by injuries. We’ll see if the other LA starters have the same success.

Relievers Daniel Hudson and Ben Casparius completed the shutout. The Dodgers tied the 1966 Baltimore Orioles by pitching 33 consecutive shutout innings in the postseason.

SMALL-BALL POWER

All of the Dodgers’ run-scoring hits were singles and doubles.

Max Muncy started the party with a two-run single in the first off Kodai Senga, who only pitched once in the regular season.

After an unimpressive Division Series against the Padres, Shohei Ohtani singled to score Gavin Lux in the second inning.

The Dodgers increased the lead to 6-0 in the fourth on RBI singles by Tommy Edman, Ohtani, and Freddie Freeman.

With the game well in hand, Mookie Betts added the exclamation point with a three-run double in the eighth inning.

WHO CONTROLS THE TV?

West Coast games usually start later than East Coast games, but TV executives really want the Yankees in prime time.

That means the second Mets-Dodgers game will take place at 4:08 p.m. Eastern on Fox. That’s 1:08 in California! Well, today is a holiday.

The main event of the evening will be the Guardians-Yankees opener at 7:38 on TBS. Alex Cobb will start for Cleveland against the Yankees’ Carlos Rodon.