Lucas Giolito and Jack Flaherty have come a long way since they were pitching together on the same staff at Harvard-Westlake High School in Los Angeles. The two aces are now considered two of the very best young arms we have in our game today. And on Tuesday, one of them will walk away with bragging rights.
Flaherty’s Cardinals traveled to the South Side of Chicago for an early-season Interleague showdown with Giolito and the first-place Chicago White Sox. As fate would have it, the two Harvard-Westlake boys are slated to take the mound as the starting pitchers on Tuesday night.
“It was right after my game, my last one, he shot me a text saying, ‘Are you going Tuesday?’” Giolito said to MLB.Com. “And I was like, ‘Yup, that’s when I’m slated for.’ And then I kind of looked at his schedule, like, ‘Oh, OK! Cool.’ So it was like five days ago.”
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“Once it happened, it was like, ‘All right, this would be cool, this would be fun,’” Flaherty said.
Jack Flaherty and Lucas Giolito aren’t the only members of the Harvard-Westlake team who will be a part of the game on Tuesday. White Sox pitching coach Ethan Katz was the pairs’ coach when they were high-schoolers. The three met up for a photo op prior to the series beginning on Monday.
Harvard-Westlake’s finest. pic.twitter.com/YNHtLKzerK
— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) May 24, 2021
While Flaherty and Giolito might be great friends, once the game starts, it will likely be all business for the two friends.
“We have a very, very strong relationship, and it runs from friendship to teammates and [then] being in pro ball, obviously different organizations,” Giolito said. “Getting together in the offseason, working on things. I’ve asked him plenty of questions about his slider in the past, he’s asked me questions about my changeup. And kind of watching each other, all that kind of stuff. We’ve been doing that forever.”
“It’s going to be a special day, and I know both teams want to present their starting pitcher with a lot of offense and a lot of defense,” White Sox manager Tony La Russa said. “It will be a classic competition. I’m looking forward to it.”
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