Kevin Gausman makes adjustments to try and turn around his season

CHICAGO - Last season, Orioles right-hander Kevin Gausman went 9-12 with a 3.61 ERA. Now his ERA is nearly three runs higher.

In the second-half of the 2016 season, Gausman went 8-6 with a 3.10 ERA. From Aug. 23 to Sept. 14, Gausman pitched four scoreless starts in five games, going 4-0 with a 0.82 ERA. He came up big for the team down the stretch.

It looked like he was finally moving toward becoming that homegrown top-of-the-rotation starter the Orioles have long tried to develop. But this year little is going right for the 26-year-old right-hander.

He is 3-5 with a 6.49 ERA. He gave up seven runs to the Yankees in 3 1/3 innings his last start. His walk rate is up from 2.4 per nine innings last year to 4.4. His WHIP has gone from 1.280 to 1.904. Right-handed batters are hitting .380 against him.

So yeah, it could be going better.

In an attempt to better locate pitches away to right-handed batters, Gausman told me, he has made an adjustment since that last start and will take it into his next one, which comes tonight at Camden Yards against St. Louis. He is going to move closer toward the middle of the pitching rubber.

"I think I've been a bit too far over on the third-base side and it's been tough for me to hit down and away consistently," he said during the series in Chicago. "So it is something that it will be a matter of inches, moving over a little bit. But it will make that pitch down and away easier to execute."

He worked on this during a Tuesday side session.

"My whole career until 2014, I was always on the first base side. And maybe that is why that pitch was always a go-to for me, that fastball down and away. I always felt confident I could hit that. For some reason, I kind of got away from that. And listen, I've had success on the third-base side also. So, it is tough to try and think if that is the reason (for his struggles). But it is about simplifying things and trying to make it easier on me."

Another factor at work during Gausman's poor 2017 season to this point is the lack of effectiveness of his split-finger pitch, which serves as a changeup for him. It helps keep hitters off his fastball and can be a putaway pitch. But this season he is throwing it less and batters are hitting it more.

"I've had my struggles with that pitch this season," Gausman said. "The games where I have pitched well this year, that pitch has been big for me. I feel really confident throwing it to lefties in any situation. But I need to get that confidence back throwing it to righties too. I've thrown a couple to righties that just kind of stayed up. If I throw my good one and it ends up down and away or down in general, I get a lot of ground balls. Could have gotten out of some big situations last game throwing it better."

Last season Gausman used his splitter 19 percent of the time, and opponent batters hit just .196 on the pitch. This year he is throwing it 14 percent of the time and allowing a .275 batting average.

"I would probably say yeah (I'm using it less)," Gausman said. "I felt really good with my slider coming out of spring, and I knew that pitch would be big for me against right-handed hitters. I don't know if that is why I haven't thrown it more, or just the fact that my fastball command hasn't been very good. And I've been focusing on trying to figure out that pitch first, and everything plays off that.

"It's not that I don't feel confident in it. But I've been in so many, 2-0, 3-0 situations, it is tough to throw a (putaway) pitch that is usually strike to ball in those spots."

There is nothing wrong with Gausman's velocity. He was throwing 95 and 96 mph often last year, and he still is. But the overall command of his pitches, along with the inconsistency of the splitter specifically, have been working against him. Does he buy a theory that if he can lock in with his splitter he can turn around his season?

"I definitely buy that," Gausman said. "But it all starts with my fastball. How many walks I've had has been the most frustrating thing. I've never been a high-walks guy, and the last start I walked six guys."