The 33-year-old left-hander racked up five strikeouts on the evening while issuing only one base on balls. All of the damage done against him came via the long ball as Javier Baez and Gleyber Torres each swatted solo home runs in the third inning. Kikuchi generated eight swings and misses on 93 pitches in the ballgame, posting a CSW of 27 percent. Still searching for his first victory of the season, Kikuchi will tote a 4.21 ERA, 1.54 WHIP and a 33/19 K/BB ratio (36 1/3 innings) into Wednesday’s matchup against the Blue Jays.

And no strikeouts. It’s amazing that the combination led to just four runs. With some help from Luis Rengifo’s botched play, Kikuchi loaded the bases with no outs in the third before being lifted. Ryan Johnson entered and managed to strand all three runners by striking out Byron Buxton and Carlos Correa and then getting Ty France to ground out. Kikuchi dropped to 0-4 with a 4.31 ERA. Kikuchi’s fastball velocity this season was already down 1.3 mph from last year, and it was down another half-mph from that today. His changeup velocity declined even further. Kikuchi just doesn’t seem like a quality mixed-league option right now. He’s due to face the Tigers next.

The 33-year-old southpaw scattered five hits and four walks on the afternoon. The lone tally against him came on an RBI single by Willy Adames in the fifth inning after Heliot Ramos had doubled and advanced to third on a throwing error. Kikuchi got 10 swings and misses on 102 pitches on the day — half of those on his slider — while registering a CSW of 26 percent. Still winless on the season, he’ll tote a 3.38 ERA, 1.26 WHIP and a 28/14 K/BB ratio (29 1/3 innings) into Saturday’s showdown against the Twins in Minneapolis.

Kikuchi had his best start of the season on Tuesday in Texas. He worked efficiently through five shutout frames before a bunt single, throwing error, and sacrifice fly put the Rangers on the board with one run in the sixth. Kikuchi would end the inning and finish the day with six strikeouts on 10 whiffs. The 33-year-old left-hander will take a 4.13 ERA, 1.17 WHIP, and a 22/10 K/BB ratio across 24 innings into a start against the Giants in Anaheim on Sunday.