"Pathetic," said Sheets, disgusted and downright bewildered after a 7-3 Brewers loss to the Astros at Miller Park. "I was absolutely pathetic. There was nothing good about it."
Sheets has been plagued by injuries for the last calendar year, but insisted he felt "unbelievable" in terms of his health. So what gave him so much trouble?
"Everything," said Sheets. "Control stunk, velocity stunk, breaking ball. Nothing was good. I think every pitch got hit hard. ... My fastball velocity is down, and I don't know why. I feel too good to be throwing that slow."
Sheets (3-5) surrendered seven runs on 10 hits in seven innings to an Astros offense that had not scored in 21 consecutive innings coming in. Meanwhile, the Brewers' stalled-out offense mustered little against a pitcher who entered without a Major League victory. Houston right-hander Jason Hirsch (1-1) pitched 5 1/3 innings for his first big-league win and combined with three relievers to limit the Brewers to five hits.
After the media scrum disbanded, Sheets continued to unload.
"Normally, when I throw 88 [mph], it's uncomfortable. I don't throw 88 mph. That's just the way it is," he said. "If I throw 88, you look up there and say, 'Something's wrong with him.' And most of the time, you're probably right.
"That's what I don't understand. How can I throw 88 when I feel this good? Today, I had no aches and pains at all. Nothing."
Sheets lost for the sixth time in his last seven starts against Houston after winning eight straight before that, and he did not have much help. Corey Hart homered in his first career at-bat as a leadoff hitter, and David Bell stayed hot with a pair of RBIs.
Tied at 2 after the fourth, Houston scored three runs on three hits and a hit batsman in the fifth inning, taking the lead on Mike Lamb's RBI single and padding it on Luke Scott's two-run triple.
But the Brewers cut the lead to 5-3 in the sixth inning, when Hirsh loaded the bases on a double and a pair of walks and reliever Chad Qualls walked Bell on four pitches to force in a run. But the chance for a big inning evaporated when catcher Damian Miller shattered his bat while grounding into an easy double play.
"In the first inning, Corey hit the home run and we got two [other] guys on, but we never really did much after that," Brewers manager Ned Yost said. "You just keep trying every day and hope that it turns on. A lot of times, it can be a switch. We're a capable offensive unit, we're just struggling at four or five spots in the lineup, and that's generally not a good thing."
The Brewers are averaging 3.8 runs per game this month. They scored 4.6 runs per game in the four months before August.
"The potential is definitely here," said Bell, who was coming off a four-hit day in Wednesday's win. "It doesn't do us much good to talk about it, but the potential is definitely here, and that's the first step."
Sheets' outing was another bump in a 2006 season that has been littered with potholes. With six weeks left in the season, he has made only nine starts and pitched 50 1/3 innings while being continuously set back by injuries in and around his shoulder. Thursday was Sheets' second start since a one-inning stint in St. Louis on Aug. 5 was cut short by a tight chest muscle, but he said his ugly pitching line had nothing to do any physical ailments.
His manager concurred.
"In Atlanta, he was throwing 96 [mph]," Yost said, referring to an outing five days earlier in which Sheets surrendered five runs over seven innings but pitched much better than his line conveyed. "He just didn't have his best stuff tonight. On nights like tonight, good pitchers find ways to get through that. That's something Benny is, but he just made some mistakes, and they jumped on it."
Yost conceded that he left Sheets in the game longer than he usually would because the Brewers' bullpen was a bit short. The team won in 13 innings at Pittsburgh on Wednesday, and set-up man Matt Wise was unavailable because of an irritated nerve in his elbow.
That was no excuse, according to Sheets. He touched 94 mph at least once but sat mostly at 90-91 mph and threw more changeups and cut-fastballs.
"Maybe I'm not strong. I don't know," Sheets said. "When I feel this good and I rear back, I normally got it. Tonight, I was rearing back and grabbing 88, 90. ... It shouldn't be that way."
Sheets declined the notion that he was "holding back" because of his various injuries, all of which likely stem from a torn muscle in his back, behind the right shoulder, that he suffered in a start last August. He started this season on the disabled list after straining a nearby muscle in Spring Training, then suffered a bout of tendinitis in May that sent him back to the DL for more than two months.
"Maybe I need to junk some of them pitches I've been learning and go back to what works," Sheets said. "Fastball, curveball and an occasional change. I know mixing all this up doen't really work for me. ... I don't think I ever allow myself to get in a rhythm."
Sheets has worked on the cut fastball this season, a pitch popular with many of his teammates. He has also thrown more two-seam, sinking fastballs than usual, and on Thursday he leaned heavily on his changeup. After Sheets was allowed out for the seventh, he surrendered Lance Berkman's 33rd home run -- a two-run shot to right field -- on a changeup.
"Trying to be cute," Sheets said. "In the end, I think it comes down to trusting your stuff. There's no reason not to trust it, because it's been good to me. It's been good to me all my life."
He vowed to make the most of his remaining starts in 2006.
"I can get it right. I've gotten it right every other year," Sheets said. "I want to wipe my slate clean in the pitching aspect. I shouldn't be getting weaker at the end of games. I never have. Why, in the seventh or eighth innings, am I unable to get outs? I don't know." Pitching problems again.