Consistency continues to elude 51s’ Burres

It would be easier if you could just go George Costanza on a hitter and throw the opposite of what you believe to be the best pitch. But baseball doesn't work that way.

It's a little more complicated than telling the pretty stranger you are unemployed and live with your parents, a little trickier than lambasting George Steinbrenner for his massive ego.

Still, Brian Burres today might consider the whole opposite theory worth a try.

He is in his eighth professional season and still trying to solve the mystery few have in the game's history, which is to say how your stuff can work so well one day and be battered to death another.

The 51s left-hander found himself frustrated on the latter side of things Monday, getting knocked here and there and everywhere in a 12-7 defeat to Sacramento at Cashman Field.

The loss ended a season-high three-game win streak for Las Vegas (11-20), which finds itself this season in a Pacific Southern Division with the excitement level of "Antiques Roadshow."

Five games separate the four teams, with first-place Sacramento (16-15) the only club better than .500.

Burres won't win many games at all pitching as he did Monday, when over five innings he allowed nine runs (eight earned) on 12 hits. He's now 1-3 with a 6.65 ERA.

The really frustrating part: His last outing was a win against Fresno, when he allowed just one earned run in seven innings.

"I had a good slider that game, and I was able to get grounders and weak swings with it," Burres said. "Today, I never had that pitch that could get me out of something. I never got going. I never made a good pitch when I needed to."

Jerry Reuss talks of the journey, of those who follow the long, traditional progression toward making a major league roster, of the roadblocks that naturally impede young arms, of perhaps not facing any real adversity until you have graduated to a certain level.

Of knowing that sooner or later, you'll be exposed.

"It doesn't take very long for experienced players and coaches and scouts to take a look and learn your weaknesses," said Reuss, the 22-year major league pitcher who worked Monday's radio broadcast alongside Russ Langer. "But once a (pitcher) recognizes the problem, it's up to him to take care of it."

Problem: Of the first six runs Burres allowed Monday, five came with two outs.

He was called up to the Blue Jays on April 29, started two games, lost both, lasted a total of 6 1/3 innings and was sent down with a 14.21 ERA. He went to Toronto with the idea of not only throwing strikes but quality ones. It didn't happen.

His 2-and-1 pitch to Eric Munson in the first inning Monday went for an RBI double. So did his 0-and-2 pitch to Joel Galarraga two batters later. His 2-and-1 pitch to Adrian Cardenas in the third went for a two-run double. The count didn't seem to matter much. He threw it, and they hit it, often hard. He never could discover a pitch that might change momentum of the game, or at least keep his team in it.

Burres looked sharp only in the fourth, when in eight pitches he retired the top of Sacramento's order.

"Look at him now," Reuss said while taking a break from the radio booth. "He has command of the entire inning. Right now, I see a kid with confidence. It's hard for me to believe this is the same guy as earlier in the game."

Burres was that guy an inning later, when an error put Aaron Cunningham aboard and Munson followed with a two-run home run to right.

Then came three more hits and another run. Then the end came for Burres.

This is a guy who from 2006 to 2008 logged 258 2/3 major league innings with Baltimore, who appeared in 79 games and started 39 times and earned 13 wins while up there.

But he also is like so many over decades and decades, good enough to make it and yet still not consistent enough to stay.

"I'm just trying to get it back," Burres said. "I have a lot of work to do. It comes with the territory of baseball. I wouldn't do it if I didn't think there was a shot of making it back (and staying) -- even if it's the longest shot ever."

Maybe he should think of hitters this way: He could be the opposite of every pitcher they ever have faced. He could earn that consistency by completely ignoring every urge toward common sense and good judgment he ever had.

He could pull a Costanza.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at 702-383-4618 or egraney@reviewjournal.com