Good Reading
Good Reading
Last Friday, Buehrle gave up a career-worst 10 runs and season-highs of nine earned runs and 10 hits in just 3 1-3 innings of an 18-3 loss to Minnesota.
``I don't know what's going on,'' he said after the loss. ``My confidence is shot. I can't get anyone out. I make a good pitch and they hit it for a double. I miss my spot, and they hit it harder.
``I'm not doing anything for this team. I'm letting them down. They score some runs, and I give up even more.''
The left-hander has lost a career-high six straight starts, posting a 7.91 ERA over that span. In his last two starts, he has earned a 14.04 ERA.
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``It's kind of hard to have confidence when you have lost six in a row, you are 2-7 and your ERA is 5.00,'' Buehrle said. ``My confidence isn't there, but I can't let myself get down too much.
``I've thrown the ball well half the time. I haven't been doing it the last three starts.''
Chicago's offense hasn't been helping out much -- Buehrle has received an average of just 1.6 runs of support during his six-game slide.
However, Buehrle could hardly use that stat as an excuse last time.
``I don't think I've ever pitched that bad,'' he said. ``Our team scored two quick runs in the second inning, and I go out there and give up one and then three and then seven. A lot of times people have been saying that the run support is not there, but today it didn't matter.''
Chicago pitching coach Don Cooper said that Buehrle's confidence is shaken, but that he should be able to turn things around.
``It's easy to have confidence and aggressiveness when everything is going right,'' he said. ``When things aren't going right, that's when the real man stands up. Mark is a real man, and I think he's going to stand up.
``A loss of confidence means to me a loss of aggressiveness, too, and we have to guard against that. I would still bet on him every time. He has six of nine quality starts, and the seventh was lost by the fog night. That's the reality of it.
``It's all well and good, but all he sees is 'I'm 2-7 and I'm not helping the club.'''
