Catcher Caleb Joseph on trying to get Kevin Gausman going tonight

Catcher Caleb Joseph will be back behind the plate tonight in the latest attempt to get pitcher Kevin Gausman on the right track.

In his first second-half start on Friday against the Cubs, Gausman faced 17 batters, allowing eight runs and a career-worst four homers over three innings.

He has gone from a pitcher with an ERA of 3.61 last year (which was 3.10 in the second half) to the current ERA of 6.39. Gausman recorded 18 quality starts in 30 outings last year and has recorded five quality starts in 20 outings this year. Last year, he allowed five or more runs six times and has already done that this season eight times. He has put together back-to-back quality starts once all season.

"The games where he has had good outings, he's had fastball command, good hard depth to the slider and he's had his split (finger fastball). But if you don't have one or two of the combo, you have to find a way to give your team a chance to win," Joseph said.

"Sure, it is easy when you have all your pitches, right? But Kevin, his heater is good enough that if he locates and you know what you are doing with some of these hitters, you should be able to still get outs. So try and put a heavy emphasis on fastball location tonight. Normally, when he's got it, the other stuff follows."

If you look at Gausman's last four starts, the inconsistency is right there for all to see. He pitched back-to-back scoreless starts on June 27 and July 2, allowing six hits over 12 1/3 innings. He has followed that with two outings pitching a combined seven innings, yielding 16 hits and 14 runs (13 earned).

"The balance is knowing what they need do right, and as a catcher, the balance is when things aren't going right to just start throwing stuff against the wall and seeing what sticks," Joseph said. "There are certain formulas these guys have that we know have proven successful. The focus is, yes we need to get this guy going and the formula is this. Now can we execute the formula? You need to stick to that as close as possible. The hitters will tell us if we need to adjust off that."

After that game against the Cubs, Gausman said he was a two-pitch pitcher that night. He didn't get his split going in that game and his fastball command was also shaky. It may have been in effect 1 1/2 pitches. What does a catcher do when that is the case?

"With Kevin with really three pitches, you can't just bag it," Joseph said. "You try to find times that don't back him into a corner and that allow him to be successful. Maybe with no one on. Certain counts are OK to throw certain pitches to try and get it going again. There are many times it didn't happen in the first and second inning, but we found spots to get it going and later on in the game, it shows back up. That happens quite often. You can't totally abandon a pitch, but you can't back him into a corner either."