Marlins-Padres: Florida's Rick VandenHurk Shows Promise in 3-2 Victory

The Marlins are searching for anyone who can be a consistent third starter and complement Josh Johnson and Ricky Nolasco.

Chris Volstad and Andrew Miller have been up-and-down all season, and Sean West was horrible after a bad start against the Yankees.

With West and Miller being sent to the minors for their bad performance, the Marlins called up Rick VandenHurk to see if he can be that starter. VandenHurk started last night at Petco Park.

VandenHurk did a good job in his debut, and it was good enough for him to get a win in the Marlins' 3-2 victory over the Padres.

It's hard to nitpick his performance because he was efficient overall, and he put his team in a position to win the game, which is what anyone expects out of a starter.

VandenHurk's strong point was his poise. He could have imploded a couple of times, but he stood strong in both situations.

In the first inning, the Padres made him throw 22 pitches, and the home plate umpire made questionable calls on a couple of his pitches, which looked like strikes yet were called balls.

It would have been easy for him to be affected by the call by being rattled about it and throwing too hard, but that was not the case here. He found a way to overcome it and get out of the inning.

In the sixth inning, he gave up a couple of home runs to Adrian Gonzalez and Kevin Kouzmanoff, which gave the Padres a 2-1 lead. He could have fell apart there and put the game out of reach, but he got out of it by getting his final out of the game.

His pitch count was relatively low and he averaged at least 11 pitches per inning, which is always a good thing for a starter.

He struggled in the sixth inning, but that happens with young pitchers and it was unrealistic for him to keep going strong for that long.

He did his job, and that was what the Marlins should take out of in his start.

There's always a caveat when an unknown starter does well. Like the Marlins, the Padres are inept on offense so VandenHurk benefited from facing a struggling offense.

VandenHurk should be commended for pitching well, but now he has to go on a run of several good starts to establish himself in the rotation.

For the Marlins to call up an 11th starting pitcher from the minors, it says a lot about the rest of the starters in that rotation.

They need a guy who they can rely on to win every fifth start, and Volstad, Miller and West have not provided that this season.

The Marlins are going to continue to looking until they find a quality No. 3 starter.

They can only hope VandenHurk will end their search.