Chad Kuhl did not quite understand why he overthrew most of his 89 pitches Tuesday night at PNC Park.
Trying to pump up the velocity on a fastball is normal, but the 24-year-old right-hander was doing the same to each of his breaking pitches and it meant very little with most of them soaring high in the zone.
The National League East-leading Nationals jumped on him for six runs on 10 hits in four-plus innings to defeat the Pirates, 8-4, handing Kuhl his fourth loss of the season.
It was not the first difficult outing for Kuhl — six of his starts have lasted five or fewer innings — but the trend is beginning to frustrate him. His catcher does not share the same concerns.
"This is a process," Francisco Cervelli said afterward. "They are young guys. They are going to get better and better, and they are going to learn from this kind of thing."
The outing, though, left Kuhl puzzled. He said each pitch felt "smooth" leaving his fingertips, but that meant very little against the Nationals' mighty lineup that ranks first in the National League in runs and batting average.
Kuhl allowed one run in the first inning, but managed to escape with an inning-ending double play. He allowed another leadoff double in the second before recording three consecutive outs, but elevated fastballs and faster-than-normal secondary pitches did not catch the Nationals off guard during their second trip through the order.
They scored two runs in the third on a two-run double by Ryan Zimmerman, who leads the major leagues with 38 RBI, after Stephen Strasburg and Jayson Werth both singled when ahead in the count. After needing just 26 pitches to get through two innings, Kuhl threw 26 in the third and 28 in the fourth.
It seemed Kuhl was overthrowing throughout his outing, and he said that might have been the case:
