Matt Albers

Red Sox reliever Matt Albers was by all counts having a career year before the calendar flipped to August. His 2.09 ERA and 0.95 WHIP were easily the best stats of his six years in the majors. But in the weeks since August 1, those numbers have swollen to 4.33 and 1.43 as the 28-year-old’s stats have not only fallen back to earth but also closer to Albers’s career averages of 4.99 and 1.54, numbers that led to him to be cut by the Orioles in the offseason.

Friday’s 15-5 loss to the A’s was just the latest in a line of poor Albers outings that have signaled the man who had been at one time a reliable reliever may no longer be deserving of such a title. Albers allowed four runs on four hits in just one inning of mop-up work after entering in the eighth of a 9-4 game.

Although the on-paper stats would indicate otherwise, Albers said Saturday that he felt he was very close to having a decent outing.

“I felt like I was just one pitch away,” he said. “I had two strikes and two outs on a few guys and just wasn’t quite able to make the pitch to get out of the inning.”

Albers’s day-after analysis appears to be spot-on. After surrendering a double to Jemile Weeks to start the inning, Albers retired the next two batters he faced (Coco Crisp and Hideki Matsui respectively) to place himself one out away from a painless frame. Had Albers retired the next batter, his season ERA would’ve stood pat at a respectable 3.67, and no one would have thought anything of it.

Instead, this is how the rest of the inning played out:

-Despite starting up 1-2 in the count, Albers threw three straight balls to Josh Willingham to walk the Oakland slugger.

-Albers went up 0-2 this time to Brandon Allen before he allowed a 1-2 double that scores Weeks and puts two runners in scoring position.

-David DeJesus doubled off Albers on a 1-1 count to clear the bases.

-Albers settled slightly and went up again 1-2 to Kurt Suzuki but followed that with two balls and a fastball that the catcher grooved to center to score the fourth run of the inning.

-After having two-strike counts to three of his previous four opponents, Albers finally struck out Cliff Pennington on three straight strikes.

An ability to get ahead of hitters as Albers did Friday is usually one of the first signs of success for pitchers. His velocity also appears to be where it should be as he topped at 96 mph Friday night. But it was his inability to retire hitters despite both of those cases that had Albers shaking his head the most the day after.

“I feel pretty good,” he said. “I’ve been behind a few hitters at times. When I’ve gotten ahead, I haven’t put them away. So it’s just that I have to find a medium of getting ahead of guys and also putting them away. I think that’s key.”

Friday was the fourth time in five outings that Albers had allowed at least a run – comparatively, he didn’t allow a single run in 10 July appearances – and the third time in that stretch that he had allowed more than one tally. Not only does that hurt the ERA, which stands at 13.40 for the month of August, but Albers said it can hurt the psyche as well.

“It seems like a few innings have snowballed. I’ve given up a couple hits and then instead of giving up just one run, I’ve given up multiple. So it’s a little frustrating, but I just have to keep working on it and trying to improve.”

Albers contends that two potential go-to reasons for his struggles (i.e. health concerns, pressure of playing in a pennant run) do not fully explain his August woes, however. He claims he’s fully healthy – the heat on his fastball would appear to back that up – and although he appeared ecstatic to be in the middle of a pennant race after spending three seasons near the cellar of the AL East with the Orioles, he claimed the added pressure of the standings haven’t been in his mind while he’s on the bump as of late.

But there is definitely something off and if Albers is go to back to his early-season form and be a reliable reliever once again, he’ll have to make some sort of adjustments or he could find himself on the outside looking in during key situations as the calendar makes its turn to September.

“I have to make sure mechanically I’m OK,” Albers said. “Mentally, I feel good, I feel confident out there. Every time I go out there, I feel like I’m going to put up a zero. It’s just not happening for me right now. I’ve got to just get back to what I was doing before which was working.”