PITTSBURGH — Right-hander Ross Ohlendorf will make his next scheduled start, but he still has a lot to prove. With less than a month left in the season, Ohlendorf is auditioning for a spot in the rotation in 2012. How he performs will dictate where he fits in with the organization.
“It’s the only opportunity that we’ve gotten to watch him,“ Manager Clint Hurdle said. “It’s definitely going to come into play. You can’t make things up. We want to be fair. We want to look at the big picture but we also want to look at results. You take everybody into consideration. Where does he end up fitting in? There’s work to be done. He’s never backed off from hard work. He’s never afraid of hard work.”
In his sixth start of the season on Friday, Ohlendorf lasted just two-innings plus allowing season-highs in runs (six) and hits (10).
“He’s got to take ownership of it,“ Hurdle said. “He has a complete understanding of what we need from him moving forward. This isn’t just carte blanche you’re going to get four or five more starts. We got to see improvement.”
Ohlendorf has allowed 22 earned runs over 24.2 innings this season in six starts.
“He’s been working on things since he’s got here,” Hurdle said. “I think there’s some things he’s continuing to try and figure out that aren’t giving him the opportunity to get the ball down with consistency. We’re not getting good locations. We’re leaving the ball up. Hitters have been comfortable and there’s just too many mistakes up in the strikezone.”
Ohlendorf, who missed most of the season with a right shoulder posterior strain, is not dealing with health issues. It’s a matter of making some adjustments on the mound.
“We’ve got a couple posture things going on, some mechanical things that we’ve seen from him in the past that he’s really not repeating,“ Hurdle said. “There’s more head movement then there needs to be. From a mechanical standpoint, there are definitely a couple things he needs to nail down.”
After trailing the Florida Marlins 2-1 on Friday, they plated nine runs (six charged to Ohlendorf) in the 3rd inning. The Pirates used Ohlendorf, Daniel McCutchen and Aaron Thompson in the frame to record the three outs.
Ohlendorf allowed four straight hits before Hurdle yanked him from the game with no outs, two on and already two runs scored. But the damage didn’t stop there. McCutchen allowed a RBI single, sac fly and a three-run homer to Emilio Bonifiacio. Thompson was brought in next, who allowed a two-run homer to Logan Morrison to plate the ninth run of the inning.
The Marlins 10 hits in an inning marked a franchise-high. The nine runs allowed were the most the Pirates have given up since April 26, 2010 at Milwaukee. It was also the most allowed in an inning at PNC Park since April 18, 2005 against St Louis when they gave up nine runs in the top of the 9th inning.
“Most of the pitches were fastballs,” Ohlendorf said. “It wasn’t coming out real good stuff-wise. It just wasn’t great. But location was the main thing. Especially that inning when I gave up four hits in a row. They were very hittable pitches in terms of being up in the zone. I didn’t pitch well at all.”
“I don’t expect it to be like that next time. I still wasn’t down as much as I wanted to be but I felt like I had been getting the ball down better, but today it was just up. I know I can throw it down better. I just need to do it next game.”
Hurdle said that moving Ohlendorf into a relief role doesn’t change his location problems.
“He’s doing everything he can,“ Hurdle said. “Nobody goes out there and wants to do well. Nobody wants to go out there and dig a hole for their club to start the game. We’ve got to consider some things, talk about some things, see if there’s anything left that we can do to help him because in reality, that’s not going to change his location, pitching out of the bullpen or starting. We’ve just got to take a better look at this, maybe slow some things down, have another set of eyes look at it.”
Ohlendorf will make his next scheduled start on Thursday. Until then, he has a lot of work to do to get back to his form from 2009 when he posted a 3.92 ERA in 29 starts.
“He needs to find a way to get in a good place and just go compete,” Hurdle said. “And not try to think everything through. I said, ‘Sometimes when I was out there, I had this little guy on my shoulder helping me and all he did was hurt. You put that little guy in your back pocket and just go out there and pitch.’”
Photo credit: Yahoo! Sports
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