READING - Reading righthander Ben Lively has hit a rough patch in his season, but it is going to take more than three difficult starts to shake the 23-year-old's confidence.
Lively, who was the Cincinnati Reds' minor-league player of the year last season, is 0-3 with a 4.80 ERA in his last three starts. He has gone exactly five innings in each game, and his opponents are hitting .369 with a .922 on-base-plus-slugging percentage.
Is this just a blip along the way?
"This is not going to put me down," Lively said after a 6-2 home loss Tuesday to the Altoona Curve.