McCarthy era has put Rangers in red

TORONTO — By rushing himself on the mound, Rangers starter Brandon McCarthy has been taking himself out of games in a hurry over his past three starts.

At least that’s McCarthy’s best diagnosis of his troubles after another short, turbulent start Sunday in the Rangers’ 7-3 loss to the Blue Jays.

He lasted just three innings, but that was an improvement over the previous two starts, when he lasted a total of three. As in those outings, McCarthy was wild Sunday from the beginning.

His control problems put four of the first five hitters on base without a hit.

“Three walks in an inning, with a hit batsman, is unacceptable by any standards,” McCarthy said.

McCarthy’s ERA rose to 9.90 and his record fell to 1-4. Though they briefly demoted him to the bullpen last week because of a rainout, the Rangers aren’t ready to give up on the 23-year-old, whom they acquired in a trade for John Danks with the Chicago White Sox last winter.

“We’re going to wait on him,” manager Ron Washington said. “When it’s his turn again, he’s going to get the ball.”

McCarthy believes his mechanics and his pitch location are thrown out of whack when he gets too anxious on the mound. That hypothesis seemed accurate Sunday, when he seemed to compose himself every few batters. He walked four and allowed six hits, but also struck out four of the nine batters he retired.

“If I have to walk slower, if I have to pick my nose in between pitches, if I have to become the biggest rain delay in the league,” McCarthy said. “ ... Something that slows me down to the point where I can stay strong mechanically is going to be important.”

After the two shortest starts of his career, McCarthy thought he had made the necessary adjustments when he threw two scoreless innings in relief in Cleveland on Wednesday. That wasn’t the case.

“I took a lot of the things I worked on this week and just kind of threw them out the window in the first" inning Sunday, McCarthy said.

McCarthy said Aaron Hill’s first-inning at-bat, when he singled in two runs, was the perfect illustration of how rushing hurts the young pitcher.

McCarthy got Hill behind in the count 1-2, but missed badly with two consecutive balls. Hill fouled off two more pitches before McCarthy grooved a fastball that Hill lined into left.

“You’re ahead, you have a chance to get out of a mess like that and all of a sudden you’re overanxious and jumping,” McCarthy said. “Two bad pitches, and it’s a full count with the bases loaded to a good hitter, and another non-quality pitch there, where I was so anxious to put the pitch on the black and get out of the inning, it stayed over the middle. That’s a great example right there. ... That’s not how you go deep in a start.”