He had a string of three solid starts that stretched from the final day of June through mid-July, but has given up 13 earned runs in just 6 1/3 innings in his past two games. Thursday's brief performance looked like it might be saved by the triple play that got him out of the second inning with the game still close, but the frustration continued to build as the game got out of hand before he could get an out in the third.