Cubs fans can quit salivating. Instead of getting winless rookie Brandon McCarthy for Sunday’s game, they will see 12-game winner Jon Garland.
The White Sox confirmed Tuesday night that McCarthy would be skipped over for this weekend’s series against the North Siders at U.S. Cellular Field.
Manager Ozzie Guillen wants to keep top starters Garland and Mark Buehrle on regular rest.
If McCarthy started Sunday, Garland and Buerhle would have six days’ rest between starts, instead of the normal four.
“We want to make sure no one pitches one day early or two days late,” Guillen said Tuesday before the Sox played host to Kansas City.
Guillen also might be remembering the so-called “black hole” fill-in fifth starters created last season when they went 5-15 record with a 9.08 ERA in 25 starts. In eerily similar numbers after three starts, McCarthy is 0-1 with an 8.40 ERA and an average of five innings per start.
The worrisome part is McCarthy is 3-7 with a 5.48 ERA at Triple-A Charlotte surrounding his two stints with the Sox.
“One thing you work on [to stay] in the big leagues is to throw strikes,” Guillen said. “And you cannot succeed at the big-league level throwing one pitch for strikes. This kid doesn’t throw 99 m.p.h. He has to command and throw strikes and throw his breaking ball for a strike. If not, he’s going to have trouble pitching at this level.”
Monday night McCarthy threw 102 pitches, only 60 of them for strikes in 4 2/3 innings. He will go to the bullpen for one start and maybe more.
“I have to believe in myself, knowing I can do it,” McCarthy said. “It’s trusting yourself and hammering out recurring mechanical problems that have happened over the last month or so. Once that happens, then the confidence comes back and everything falls into line.”
Not 22 until July 7, and with only one full minor-league season behind him, McCarthy is suffering from typical problems of inexperience. He knows he’s a good pitcher, but not right now
“It’s little things here and there,” he said. “It’s almost like hoping a bad thing doesn’t happen instead of knowing a good thing will happen. It’s kind of tough to turn that around. It’s just like a hitter’s slump except he gets a chance to turn it around every day.”
McCarthy doesn’t even get to pitch every five days, although he and pitching coach Don Cooper will continue bullpen work to straighten out his mechanics so he can please Guillen by throwing strikes.
“The whole thing is making sure I don’t rush,” he said. “I have a tendency, especially out of the stretch, to . . . pitch as fast as I can. That leaves a lot of pitches up, [resulting in] throwing balls and flattening my curveball.”
He realizes his problems are mental and physical.
“A combination of both,” he said. “It’s kind of a domino effect. If your mechanics are out of whack, then that does damage to your psyche. It’s tough to reverse that. But I know that once I strengthen myself up mechanically then the pitches get better and I get that confidence back.
“Instead of making a bad pitch on a certain count, I make a good pitch. I think it will turn around [quickly] like that.”
Now the problem is getting another chance.
