PITTSBURGH — Right-hander Ross Ohlendorf will make his next scheduled start, but he still has a lot to prove. With\u00a0less than a month\u00a0left 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the only opportunity that we\u2019ve gotten to watch him,\u201c Manager Clint Hurdle said. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely going to come into play. You can\u2019t 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\u2019s work to be done. He\u2019s never backed off from hard work. He\u2019s never afraid of hard work.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his sixth start of the season on Friday, Ohlendorf lasted just two-innings plus allowing season-highs in runs (six) and hits (10).<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s got to take ownership of it,\u201c Hurdle said. \u201cHe has a complete understanding of what we need from him moving forward. This isn\u2019t just carte blanche you\u2019re going to get four or five more starts. We got to see improvement.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ohlendorf has allowed 22 earned runs over 24.2 innings this season in six starts.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been working on things since he\u2019s got here,\u201d Hurdle said. \u201cI think there\u2019s some things he\u2019s continuing to try and figure out that aren\u2019t giving him the opportunity to get the ball down with consistency. We\u2019re not getting good locations. We\u2019re leaving the ball up. Hitters have been comfortable and there\u2019s just too many mistakes up in the strikezone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ohlendorf, who missed most of the season with a right shoulder posterior strain, is not dealing with health issues. It\u2019s a matter of making some adjustments on the mound.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got a couple posture things going on, some mechanical things that we\u2019ve seen from him in the past that he\u2019s really not repeating,\u201c Hurdle said. \u201cThere\u2019s more head movement then there needs to be. From a mechanical standpoint, there are definitely a couple things he needs to nail down.\u201d<\/p>\n
After trailing the Florida Marlins 2-1 on Friday, they plated nine runs (six charged to Ohlendorf) in the 3rd<\/sup> inning. The Pirates used Ohlendorf, Daniel McCutchen and Aaron Thompson in the frame to record the three outs.<\/p>\n 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\u2019t stop there. McCutchen allowed\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n 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<\/sup> inning.<\/p>\n \u201cMost of the pitches were fastballs,\u201d Ohlendorf said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t coming out real good stuff-wise. It just wasn\u2019t 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\u2019t pitch well at all.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t expect it to be like that next time. I still wasn\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Hurdle said that moving Ohlendorf into a relief role doesn\u2019t change his location\u00a0problems.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s doing everything he can,\u201c Hurdle said. \u201cNobody 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\u2019ve got to consider some things, talk about some things, see if there\u2019s anything left that we can do to help him because in reality, that\u2019s not going to change his location, pitching out of the bullpen or starting. We\u2019ve just got to take a better look at this, maybe slow some things down, have another set of eyes look at it.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cHe needs to find a way to get in a good place and just go compete,\u201d Hurdle said. \u201cAnd not try to think everything through. I said, \u2018Sometimes 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.’\u201d<\/p>\n Photo credit: Yahoo! Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" PITTSBURGH — Right-hander Ross Ohlendorf will make his next scheduled start, but he still has a lot to prove. With\u00a0less than a month\u00a0left 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. \u201cIt\u2019s the only opportunity that we\u2019ve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7459,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[1433,616,872,1532,425,619,652],"class_list":["post-7458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-professional","tag-aaron-thompson","tag-clint-hurdle","tag-daniel-mccutchen","tag-marlins","tag-pirates","tag-pittsburgh","tag-ross-ohlendorf"],"yoast_head":"\n