08:16 AM EDT on Friday, May 28, 2004

AP photo Red Sox starter Bronson Arroyo takes a long look at a fresh baseball while the Athletics' Eric Chavez rounds the bases after hitting a home run in the second inning.

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BOSTON -- In the giddy days of April, when he was helping to beat the Yankees twice in the span of six days, he was the toast of New England.

When he was reassigned to the bullpen in early May, vacating his spot for the not-so-triumphant return of Byung-Hyun Kim, he was the victim of a grand injustice.

When he returned from bullpen exile on May 15 and turned in arguably the best pitched game of the season -- eight shutout innings, three hits allowed -- it was his vindication.

But last night, reality struck Bronson Arroyo. Hard. Just like the Oakland A's hitters.

In just 3 1/3 innings, he was pummeled for seven hits and nine runs, six earned, as the Red Sox absorbed their worst defeat of the season, 15-2.

"Everything I threw up there, they hit on the screws," said Arroyo.

Over his last two starts, Arroyo has now surrendered 14 hits and 11 earned runs in 9 1/3 innings.

Of course, Arroyo isn't as bad as he looked in his last two outings. Conversely, it wasn't reasonable to expect him to pitch as well as he did in some of his earlier starts -- at least not regularly.

Or did you really expect that, at the end of the season, the team's won-loss percentage with Arroyo as its starter would be second only to those games started by Curt Schilling?

These things have a way of evening out. Having ridden the euphoria of the early-season wave, Arroyo has temporarily wiped out. It won't be permanent. But it does serve as a reminder that success can be a temporary condition on a major league mound.

"It happens to the best of them," said pitching coach Dave Wallace. "I like to remind these guys that, when you get here, there's no where else to go (upward). This is the best league in the world. That's the crazy thing about this game -- it has a way of humbling you real fast."

"It's tough to forget about games like this," said Arroyo. "They happen every single year, a couple of times. But it's still tough to swallow."

The night looked like batting practice for the A's, who drove doubles off The Wall with alarming frequency, the result of Arroyo leaving too many pitches up in the strike zone.

Arroyo is the fifth starter on a very talented staff, and while it's dangerous to get too hung up on roles and numbers, this much can be said: the fact that he's the Sox' No. 5 starter instead of, say, their No. 3, is a very encouraging thing indeed.

There are some teams in baseball for whom Arroyo would be the No. 3 starter. Only a few weeks ago, before Jon Lieber resurfaced and things stabilized some, one of those teams might have included the defending American League champion New York Yankees.

Such is the shortage of pitching in the game.

It's important to remember, too, that Arroyo isn't some 22-year-old can't-miss kid. He's 27, and until being alertly claimed on waivers by the Red Sox last season, had spent the previous three seasons bouncing between Triple A and Pittsburgh.

His sin? Inconsistency -- the hallmark of unproven pitchers.

There's still plenty to like about Arroyo. As Francona is fond of saying, the lanky righty has a habit of "attacking the strike zone." In his more effective outings, he keeps the ball down, doesn't walk many hitters (10 in 41 2/3 innings before last night) and works quickly.

In short, he does a lot of the things that the Sox wish Kim could do, and for whatever mysterious reason, does not. And, it should be added, he does it at a far more affordable salary.

"What I love about Bronson," Wallace said, "is his makeup. I'm confident he'll be back and he'll be OK. This is a test. And based on what I know about him, I expect he'll pass it. He understands. There was no self-pity, no excuses."

But his last two starts have been a pointed reminder that it's not as easy as it sometimes looks.

That's life in the big leagues. More to the point, that's life as a No. 5 starter still trying to negotiate baseball's steep learning curve.