Jack Flaherty's Tigers future will be determined in Wild Card Game 2 vs Guardians

On Wednesday, the Tigers lost Game 2 of the Wild Card series to the Guardians in truly embarrassing fashion. They left 15 runners in scoring position, one away from matching a postseason record set by the 2009 Dodgers in the NLDS, and a bullpen meltdown that started with Troy Melton and led to a five-run eighth inning.

Nothing except the Tigers' starting pitching has been working — Casey Mize gave up a solo homer in the first and a pair of walks but otherwise looked solid until AJ Hinch pulled him early to play matchups against the Guardians — but that could very well change on Thursday.

Jack Flaherty will get the Game 3 start, as expected. He was strangely good against most postseason contenders in the regular season, and had a decent 3.94 ERA against the Guardians in three starts. In his last outing of the year against Cleveland, he pitched 4 1/3 innings and gave up three runs.

His Game 3 start could change everything for his future with the club. It seems pretty clear that he's going to exercise his $20 million player option (even though Jeff Passan disagrees) after posting a 4.64 ERA on the season, but if he can play hero on Thursday, testing the free agent market again might look a lot more tempting.

Jack Flaherty's potentially postseason-saving start in Wild Card Game 2 will be life or death for him and Tigers

Flaherty made five starts in the postseason last year, but only one was exceptional or even remotely good — his seven scoreless innings against the Mets in the NLCS. His last start in Game 5 was won in spite of him and thanks to an immediately infamous cavalcade of errors from the Yankees' defense. Flaherty himself was pulled after 1 1/3 innings when he gave up two runs.

His starts have been a grab bag all season, and it's impossible to predict which version of him we'll see on Thursday. That's not what you want out of your starter in a decisive game, but the Tigers have no other options. Then again, the Guardians are now officially a playoff team, so maybe Flaherty ups his game.

And, of course, it'll be up to the Tigers' offense to pull themselves together and offer significant run support, which they've failed to do thus far, even in their Game 1 win. It's do-or-die for everyone involved, but there are certainly some higher stakes in it for Flaherty.