FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Rick VandenHurk was so efficient
Wednesday against the Baltimore Orioles, he pitched in the bullpen
afterward to round out a performance in which he erased the only
players he allowed to reach base.
VandenHurk faced the minimum nine batters in three shutout
innings, and Brett Carroll drove in a run and scored one to lead a
Florida Marlins split squad to a 2-1 victory.
Vying for the fifth spot in the rotation, VandenHurk allowed one
hit and a walk. Neither runner advanced, though, because of the
right-hander's slick move to first base.
In the second inning, Kevin Millar strayed far off first and got
caught in a rundown before being tagged out. In the third, Luis
Hernandez walked before being nailed on a quick throw from
VandenHurk.
"I just tried to hold them close to the bag and not give them a
free base," VandenHurk said. "Luckily I got one; that doesn't
happen a lot."
After throwing 33 pitches and lowering his ERA to 1.80, he moved
to the bullpen and threw the equivalent of another inning.
"Just to extend a little bit, try to get my arm ready for more
innings," VandenHurk said. "Try to build it up so next outing I
can go longer."
The 22-year-old VandenHurk went 4-6 with a 6.83 ERA in 18 games
as a rookie with the Marlins last season. His success made him
somewhat of a sensation in the Netherlands, where he was born and
spends the offseason.
"It was pretty crazy, a lot of fun," he said. "There was a
lot of media attention, I did a lot of TV stuff, radio stuff,
newspapers, magazines. It was a good thing to promote baseball.
It's getting a lot bigger there and I'm happy about that."
The Marlins took a 2-0 lead in the first inning when Robert
Andino hit a leadoff double off Steve Trachsel and scored on a
double by Carroll. Luis Gonzalez followed with an RBIs single.
Trachsel allowed five hits, two runs and a walk in three
innings. He's had two starts this spring, both against a Marlins
split squad, and he expressed a desire to face someone different
the next time around.
"Maybe a team where I've actually heard of more than three guys
in the lineup," he said.
Tike Redman accounted for Baltimore's lone run with a
sixth-inning homer off Marcos Carvajal.