Tigers fall to Blue Jays

DETROIT -- If Joaquin Benoit wants to look on the bright side, he had a much better night than Kansas City Royals pitcher Vin Mazzaro.Mazzaro was tattooed by the Cleveland Indians to the tune of 14 earned runs on 11 hits in 2 13 innings.But back to Benoit, who has posted a miserable 21.60 ERA in his last six outings, which is not what he was looking for, especially after a dazzling 1.34 ERA and 0.68 WHIP last season with the Tampa Bay Rays.Nobody expected Benoit to be able to reproduce that kind of a season but nobody expected him to be 1-3 with a 7.98 ERA at this point either. When Benoit entered Monday night's game against the Toronto Blue Jays to start the eighth, the score was 1-1. After Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion both singled, Aaron Hill drilled a double down the left-field line to score Bautista. Juan Rivera and J.P. Arencibia followed with sacrifice flies and just like that, it was 4-1. Jhonny Peralta's home run provided the final margin as the Tigers' seven-game winning streak ended with a 4-2 defeat."Obviously he's struggling," manager Jim Leyland said. "It's not velocity because the velocity is still pretty good. It looks to me like he's just not locating well for whatever reason, where he's trying to throw it."It's a mystery to everyone, including Benoit."If I would know that, I would give you an answer," Benoit said. "I'm trying to figure it out. I haven't lost velocity. Things are not going right."Although Benoit has a history of injury trouble, he said that was not the problem.Pitching coach Rick Knapp said Bautista's hit, off the end of the bat, seemed to have eyes since they were playing to prevent the double. The problem, according to Knapp, can probably be found between the ears rather than in the arm."Is it mechanics? I don't think it's mechanics," Knapp said. "I think it's just confidence. To throw the ball down, it isn't something you can think about, you have to leverage it that way. You have to know that you're going to throw the ball down and not have to think about it."Both Benoit and Knapp thought that the 33-year-old had taken a step forward with his last outing in Minnesota, when he threw 1 23 innings and allowed one unearned run on three hits while striking out three.But allowing three runs on four hits in one inning with no strikeouts was a step backward. Benoit heard the boos as he left the mound after the eighth inning."I would love to hear them cheer but right now things are not going right and I can't blame them," Benoit said. "The only thing I can do is try to get better, try to be more consistent, throw strikes early and get people out. If I'm not doing it right now, I can't blame anybody."Knapp said when Benoit joined the Rays at the end of April last year, he got on a roll that carried him through the season. "It's one of those deals where you have to execute to get confidence, confidence isn't something that you're just going to show up with," Knapp said. "It's not going to just walk through the door. You have your swagger but I think that right now he's a little bit in his own head."When a pitcher is lacking confidence, it would help to be able to put him in a game in which it's not such a pressure situation. But the Tigers have mostly been in close games and the starters have been pitching well and deep into games, so that's been a problem.For the time being, at least until the Tigers can help Benoit get out of his slump, they're going to have to keep try other pitchers in the eighth inning, whether it's Brayan Villareal, Daniel Schlereth, Al Albuquerque or Ryan Perry. "I think everybody wants him to perform and nobody more so than him," Knapp said. "I don't see the stuff falling off as much as just he's missing his spots, which means he's getting closer."