Mark Buehrle rebounded to have his first good start in more than a month with six innings, two runs, and most importantly, five baserunners. It's an important first step, but it's hard to count any start against Kansas City a legitimate stepping stone. I mean, Javier Vazquez has a 1.59 ERA in 22 2/3 innings against the Royals, and his ERA against everybody else combined is 6.30. That's why I didn't count any K.C. starts when sizing up the rotation's best outings in the midseason review.
That being the case, I wouldn't make much out of the impact Sandy Alomar Jr. may or may not have had on Buehrle during his first time receiving the struggling lefty this year. In fact, I'm not counting on Alomar to help Buehrle all that much, because while people are noting that Buehrle's had some of his finest moments with Alomar serving as the other half of the battery, Alomar was also on hand for the worst stretch of Buehrle's career.
Buehrle's previous six starts might be historically bad, but it hasn't yet come close to the nine-game losing streak he had spread out over 11 starts in the first half of 2003. And guess who caught the first six of those losses? Yes, it was Alomar.
That's why I'm not a big believer that Alomar himself is going to make any impact whatsoever in rejuvenating Buehrle's game, as
Ozzie Guillen and others are hoping.
Yes, as Mark Gonzalez writes, Buehrle did go 16-8 with a 3.29 ERA while starting with Alomar. But last year, while working mainly with A.J. Pierzynski, Buehrle went 16-8 with a 3.12 ERA. Before his recent meltdown beginning with his start against the Cubs, he was 9-4 with a 3.22 ERA.
Pierzynski didn't just start becoming a bad game-caller. Buehrle just started becoming a bad pitcher.
The line he posted in the first half of 2003 is somewhat better than the one he posted now, although his ERA was buoyed by 10 unearned runs over those 11 games. Here they are, side-by-side (as always, not counting the start against the Royals):
| Year |
IP |
H |
ER |
HR |
BB |
K |
ERA |
| 2003 |
61.2 |
82 |
47 |
11 |
26 |
32 |
6.86 |
| 2006 |
26.2 |
47 |
34 |
8 |
5 |
15 |
11.47 |
He's showing the same symptoms -- an insane amount of baserunners and more homers than he usually surrenders. The difference lies in the .25 increase in WHIP, and some of those hits going for extra bases while the walks are stopping at first, mainly.
That's not to say Alomar's presence won't affect Buehrle one way or another, because confidence is meaningful and can't exactly be measured, but throughout his career, it really hasn't mattered who's catching for him. Alomar's been there for the best of times and the worst of times, literally, whereas this stretch is the first real rough one Buehrle's had with A.J. behind the plate. And Buehrle won a lot of games with a combiation of Miguel Olivo, Josh Paul, Mark Johnson, Jamie Burke and Ben Davis catching as well.
We'll have a better idea of what Alomar might be able to do when Buehrle faces the Angels on Monday, and more so when Detroit comes to town on Saturday. In the mean time, just be glad he's contributed with the bat. Although, once again, when the hits are coming against Kansas City, it's tough to use them as any sort of gauge.