MILWAUKEE -- Seven outings in, Kyle Lohse is still in search of himself in his third year with the Milwaukee Brewers.
The veteran right-hander enters Friday night's start against the New York Mets feeling he is close to returning to form as one of the most consistent pitchers in the National League since the beginning of 2011.
Lohse has allowed 31 runs in 39 2/3 innings (7.03 ERA) and has just one quality start in seven tries.
"It's a little frustrating," Lohse said. "It's kind of been one of those things where I feel really good, and I'm just running into a couple innings where they're fouling off a lot of pitches or I'm going deep in counts."
Lohse was tagged for eight runs in 3 1/3 innings by the Colorado Rockies on Opening Day. In his second start, Lohse held a 2-1 lead until surrendering a three-run home run to Pittsburgh's Andrew McCutchen in the sixth inning of an eventual 10-2 loss.
When Lohse is right he works at a quick pace and gets into a noticeable rhythm. The lone outing in which the 36-year-old has done that to look like his old self came April 23 when he held the Cincinnati Reds to just two runs on three hits over seven innings.
Although the Brewers have won the last two games Lohse has started, he's had to battle just to make it through five innings. It took Lohse 104 pitches to do so against the Los Angeles Dodgers on May 4 and 106 pitches against the Chicago Cubs his last time out on May 9.
"I think it's been harder than it usually is for him," Brewers manager Craig Counsell. "That's true, I think he'd tell you that. He'll go through stretches like that. Kyle is about execution, he's about making pitches, hitting spots with all four pitches and he has to do that.
"He's fighting himself a little bit at times but he still has the moxie to get through that."
The home run has burned Lohse more than usual, as he's already allowed 10 in seven starts. He's allowing 2.27 home runs per nine innings, the highest rate among any pitcher in the majors. An alarming 19.2 percent of the fly balls Lohse has allowed have gone out for home runs.
His left-on-base percentage is at a career-worst 59.5 percent, the fourth-lowest percentage among qualified starting pitchers.
"The frustrating thing about baseball is you can feel great throwing your bullpens, but the hitters will let you know what's really going on," Lohse said. "I feel really close. I just keep leaving a couple out over the plate, and it's touching me up a little bit."
If the last-place Brewers do decide to ship off assets, Lohse will be at the top of the list of players most likely to be traded. A durable, veteran arm in the final year of a contract could make Lohse a target of many teams in need of rotation help.
Sure-fire contenders such as the Dodgers and Cardinals could both use an innings-eater like Lohse, while the Boston Red Sox are in desperate need of starting pitching help.
Eventually, a command pitcher like Lohse simply loses the slight margin for error he has. The draft pick compensation attached to him was the main reason why he sat on the free-agent market as long as he did in 2013, but teams also were hesitant to give him a third year fearing his decline would happen in 2015 at 36 years old.
But Lohse remains confident a few tweaks will have him back to being the pitcher that averaged 199 innings with a 3.28 ERA over the past four years with the Cardinals and Brewers.
A strong outing against the Mets would be a nice first step toward getting back on track.
"You just keep working on it," Lohse said. "Mechanically, there were a couple things, talking with (injured Brewers catcher Jonathan) Lucroy, even, seeing what he sees. I don't want to get too much into it, but there are just a couple adjustments I can make to get it locked in like I was earlier in (the spring)."
Follow Andrew Gruman on Twitter
