When Nate Robertson first joined the rotation, he was striking out a lot of guys but running up huge pitch counts in the process. Lately the strikeout numbers haven’t been there, but the pitch counts have. I don’t really have an answer for it.

Last night, I think Nate’s early and high pitch count was a result of some shoddy defense behind him — the botched double play ball forced him to face two more batters (and throw eight more pitches, if memory serves) in that inning.

In contemporary baseball, I think that the real price of poor fielding is not so much the unearned runs that may result from an error, but the fact that an error forces the pitcher to face more batters, and throw more pitches, than he otherwise would have.

I know eight pitches might not seem like a lot, but if Nate had finished the fifth at 92 pitches rather than 100, I think there’s a chance that Leyland allows him to pitch part or even all of the sixth.

This observation really only holds for last night’s game, and can’t explain every start in which Nate is up around 100 in the fifth inning. I guess I’m not sure that we should be looking for a holistic explanation for his recent struggles.

Meanwhile, Jones is making it interesting as usual.

Cinci now up 10-4 over Cleveland.