A Quick Look at Buehrle

Well that wasn't really what I was expecting now.  Mark Buehrle, or "Turbo" as he's affectionately known around these parts, got beat up pretty hard last night, to the tune of 6 earned runs over 5.1 innings.  Fortunately, the Jays offense bailed him out pretty royally, putting up 10 runs on 5 HR's.

I was pretty surprised to see Buehrle head back out there to start the 6th, given his performance through the first five, but what do I know?  Either way, this would have been one of those situations where you'd see a lot more people really begin to question John Gibbons, had the Jays not won this game.

Buerhle definitely missed the glove a lot; whether it was nerves or adrenaline or just a rough night, I dunno.  It was only one start, I guess, he just seemed like he was all over the map to me, and getting a three-run lead back in the fifth seemed like a gift.  With an 8-man bullpen, there was probably enough man-power back there to pull Buehrle.

Buehrle certainly isn't, nor has he ever been, for that matter, a guy who can just bomb it down the middle and get guys to swing and miss.  His fastball topped out at 87.5 MPH last night, and was sitting right around 85.  That's some Brad Mills stuff right there.

Ultimately, I don't really know if I have a point that I'm trying to reach here; haven't decided yet.  If I had to choose one, it would probably be to get the ball down.  I can't imagine it's all that useful to focus on a single start, much less a small subset or results-oriented locations from that single start, but there are definitely some mistakes made on both of the red ones, and probably all three of the orange ones, let alone some of the flyouts and popouts.

Kudos, though, to Gibbons for sticking Delabar in to that situation, and not Rogers or Jeffress or Cecil, the way Farrell probably would have.  It always felt like Farrell just kind of lumped guys in to specific roles (i.e. mop-up, a guy to hold leads, a guy to pitch defecits, etc.), and since it was only the 6th inning, he wouldn't have put in a guy like Delabar, regardless of the leverage of the situation.  Delabar was probably the right guy to enter the game at this point, as he was the most likely to get a strikeout or two in a situation in which a strikeout or two were needed.

Little things.