Toronto Blue Jays shortstop Troy Tulowitzki tosses his bat past home plate umpire Manny Gonzalez after lining out to end the fourth inning at Fenway Park in Boston on Sept. 7.Winslow Townson/The Associated Press
Mark Buehrle is 36, which is not old if you are an accountant or a salesman.
But if you're a baseball pitcher of that age, people start checking your best-before date and constantly inquire how you feel. Commuters on public transit are inclined to offer you their seat. Wool socks are considered a good birthday gift.
The veteran Toronto Blue Jays lefty will tell you he is not ready for the pipe-and-slippers treatment just yet, but he has admitted that as this Major League Baseball season drags on, he has started feeling the effects.
"It's pretty much September is what it was," is how Buehrle tried to sum up his physical condition after another worrying outing here on a holiday Monday afternoon against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park.
There wasn't too much pitch and miss to the left-hander's offerings, and the result was a rather easy 11-4 romp by the Red Sox over the Blue Jays.
It was not the way the Blue Jays wanted to begin a critical 10-game road trip that will also take them to New York this weekend for an American League East first-place showdown against the Yankees.
With the never-say-die Yankees beating the Baltimore Orioles 8-6 Monday, Toronto's lead atop the standing is now a precarious half game over New York.
In what has been a recent disturbing trend of late, Buehrle was off his game against the Red Sox, and was yanked after just 3 1/3-innings of work, his shortest outing of the season.
And this was after the Blue Jays decided to give Buehrle, who was originally scheduled to pitch on Saturday against the Orioles, additional time off between starts, hoping the added rest would do him good.
It seemed to have the opposite effect as the Red Sox pounded Buehrle for five runs off nine hits. He did not strike out a batter.
"[My pitches] weren't missing many bats," Buehrle said of his outing. "They were putting the ball in play on me and everybody else who was pitching.
"I felt pretty good; I felt like I made some pitches. The results weren't there, but I don't feel as bad about today as I have in previous few starts."
Boston led 5-1 after four and the Blue Jays showed little ability to battle back after that.
Josh Donaldson got the Blue Jays off to a good start in the first inning, stroking a home run over the Green Monster in left field on a 0-1 pitch from Rick Porcello, the Boston starter. It was Donaldson's 37th home run of the season, and 100th in his career.
But the Red Sox got one back in the second and then tagged on two more in both the third and the fourth innings to take command. Jackie Bradley Jr. went four-for-four for Boston, with a two-run home run off Toronto reliever Liam Hendriks in the sixth inning.
Travis Shaw also homered for the Red Sox.
Justin Smoak hit a home run for Toronto in the fifth.
"I have some concerns," Toronto manager John Gibbons said when asked about Buehrle's struggles of late. "We'll see. He's one of our five. Just the minute you think something's up, he responds. He always has. Hopefully he can do it again."
With the loss, Buehrle's record fell to 14-7 on the season. In his past four outings (1-2), he has logged 19 1/3 innings and allowed 15 earned runs off 28 hits. His earned-run average over that span is 7.07.
"He's not a young guy any more," Gibbons observed before Monday's game.
Buehrle is a phenomenon, zeroing in on his 15th consecutive season of at least 200 innings pitched. He has never landed on the disabled list.
But if he doesn't right himself, and fast, the Blue Jays have a difficult decision to make. While Toronto was playing the Red Sox, Marcus Stroman was in Pawtucket, R.I., about an hour's drive north of Boston, making his final rehab start for the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons.
It wasn't a great outing – he gave up four runs off eight hits and three walks through three innings against Pawtucket. But the most important thing for the Blue Jays is that Stroman came out of the game feeling physically sound.
Stroman will now return to the Blue Jays, and the team will have to figure out how to make use of his talent over the remaining 25 games of the regular season.
Gibbons has said he expects Stroman will get a spot start or two if his surgically repaired knee holds up, but at who's expense. Buehrle's? Drew Hutchison's?
The Blue Jays have not yet divulged their plans on that one.
Buehrle was asked if he has any concerns looking forward. He said he did not.
"Go out there and make some pitches in the next couple of starts, and whenever that next start is – if it's on Saturday, if it's on Tuesday, if it's two weeks from today," he said of his approach. "I don't know when that will be, but when I make my next start, I'll go out there and give it all."