TORONTO — When a pitcher is asked to walk a tightrope every time he takes the mound, every slip he makes will be magnified. Though it’s undeniable Hiroki Kuroda hasn’t pitched well over his last seven starts, the lack of run support (not just over those seven starts, but the entire season) he has received from the Yankees lineup only make those tough outings even tougher.
Kuroda’s performance in Thursday night’s 6-2 loss to the Blue Jays fit the textbook minimum for a quality start: six innings pitched, three earned runs allowed. It took him 102 pitches to get through those six frames and Kuroda allowed eight hits and four walks along the way, but still, he did his best to overcome a lack of sharpness and keep his club in the game.
He was able to limit the damage thanks to some poor situational hitting from the Jays, who stranded seven runners during Kuroda’s six innings and hit into two double plays. The first of those was a gift, as two Toronto runners found themselves tagged out at third base on a rare fielder’s choice double play.
“[He was] gutsy, he was in trouble every inning,” manager Joe Girardi said. “He got some double plays that helped him, but it seemed like the first guy or first two guys were on every inning. He did a really good job of minimizing damage.”
Kuroda allowed two runs in the third inning and left the bases loaded, then settled down through the middle innings, at one point retiring seven consecutive Jays batters. That streak was snapped, however, when Anthony Gose lofted a solo homer over the right field wall in the sixth to make it a 3-1 game for the home side.
Though it was Joba Chamberlain’s disastrous, three-run relief appearance that really put things out of reach for the Yankees, Kuroda took the loss and dropped to 11-12 for the year. If you wanted to argue that pitcher wins are a flawed statistic, Kuroda would be a prime example given how well the right-hander pitched for the first three-quarters of the season.
After posting a 2.33 ERA through his first 24 starts, Kuroda seemingly hit a wall. He now has a 6.36 ERA and an 0-5 record over his last seven starts, a slump that has been all the more troubling given that the Yankees needed Kuroda to keep pitching like an ace during their playoff run.
At some point, however, the Yankees need to fulfill their own part of the bargain and give Kuroda some backup. Entering Thursday’s game, Kuroda ranked 76th out of 80 qualified major league pitchers in terms of run support, receiving an average of just 3.19 runs over his 30 starts.
“For the most part he was pretty good, he had his good stuff going. It was just unlucky again we didn’t score any runs for him,” catcher Chris Stewart said.
Kuroda didn’t blame his lineup, instead pointing the finger at himself for not limiting the one-run deficit.
“There are good days and bad days with offense, too, but as a pitcher, I have to concentrate on not giving up that third run in the sixth,” Kuroda said, via a translator.