Red Sox starting pitcher Walker Buehler walks off the field as he is replaced during the fourth inning Tuesday. (AP Photo/John Froschauer)AP
SEATTLE — Red Sox starter Walker Buehler’s ERA jumped to 5.95 ERA (59 innings, 38 earned runs) in 12 starts after he allowed eight runs on eight hits and four walks while striking out two in 3 ⅓ innings Tuesday. Boston lost 8-0 to the Mariners here at T-Mobile Park.
A frustrated Buehler was upset that as a veteran he couldn’t keep the momentum going for the Red Sox who had won six straight games and nine of their previous 11 games.
“At the end of the day it sucks to fail on that kind of level with where our team’s at and how we’ve been feeling about ourselves and starting to play really good baseball,” Buehler said. “To be an older guy that was brought in here to try and help lead and to perform the way I have been is tough and embarrassing.”
Manager Alex Cora pointed out that Buehler struggled putting hitters away after getting ahead in counts.
“He wasn’t able to finish hitters,” Cora said. “I think eight at-bats we had him with two strikes and they got on base — walk, singles, double. … We had two outs at one point, one pitch away from getting out from that inning and it just didn’t happen.”
Five of the eight hits Buehler allowed came after he got ahead in the count either 0-2 or 1-2. He also allowed a single on a 2-2 count.
The grand slam to Cal Raleigh that made it 5-0 in the second inning came on a first-pitch changeup.
Only one hit he gave up came when he was behind in a count.
“Obviously the big swing was on a 0-0 but other than that, it was a lot of two strikes and kind of pitches that are almost what I wanted but not quite,” Buehler said. “And they did a good job of putting bats on it and putting it in play, hitting the ball hard and doing what they’re supposed to do.”
Cora added, “We’ve got to figure (it) out because when you’re that ahead in counts, 1-2, 0-2, we have to be able to finish them. We’ll take a look and see what happened today. And we’ll figure it out.”
Buehler threw just 58.1% strikes (93 pitches, 54 strikes).
“Obviously throughout my career I’ve thrown strikes,” Buehler said. “So to walk the amount of guys that I did and give up eight hits or whatever, it’s just not what we’re looking for.”