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SportsMarch 28, 2008

JUPITER, Fla. -- Rick VandenHurk's first outing after Florida made him its No. 2 starter was a rough one. VandenHurk walked five and needed 100 pitches to get through 4 2/3 innings in the Marlins' 2-0 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals on Thursday. The right-hander allowed two runs and five hits, but hurt himself with his command, walking Troy Glaus with the bases loaded in the fifth inning...

The Associated Press

JUPITER, Fla. -- Rick VandenHurk's first outing after Florida made him its No. 2 starter was a rough one.

VandenHurk walked five and needed 100 pitches to get through 4 2/3 innings in the Marlins' 2-0 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals on Thursday. The right-hander allowed two runs and five hits, but hurt himself with his command, walking Troy Glaus with the bases loaded in the fifth inning.

"A play here or a play there in that third inning and he might have been able to go deeper," Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez said. "Obviously if you want to nitpick, you want to cut down on the walks, but I thought he did fine."

The Marlins finalized their rotation Thursday morning. Left-hander Mark Hendrickson will start the opener, followed by VandenHurk, left-hander Andrew Miller and left-hander Scott Olsen. Right-hander Ricky Nolasco will begin the season in the bullpen and start April 13, the first day Florida will need a fifth starter.

"Rick has done a terrific job," Gonzalez said. "He deserves to go No. 2, and by doing this, it splits up the lefties."

The five starters combined to average 16.4 starts last year. But VandenHurk, who went 4-6 with a 6.83 ERA in 18 games last year, said he believes the Marlins can surprise teams this season.

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"We're going to put up a lot of runs," said VandenHurk, who finished the spring 2-2 with a 4.35 ERA. "Our bullpen is one of the best in the league. If as starting pitchers we can set the tone in the beginning, we can surprise a lot of people."

For the Cardinals, Kyle Lohse allowed three hits in five innings to earn his first spring win.

"I felt good," he said. "My off-speed stuff was down in the zone. I was trying to concentrate on keeping the fastball down. I had a couple fly open and guys were ducking out of the way. My changeup was real good. I got a lot of groundballs with that. That's a good sign, if you can get by with a fastball and changeup."

Lohse, who struck out four and walked one, will throw a side session Tuesday before making his debut in St. Louis' sixth game of the season.

Kyle McClellan followed with two innings of one-hit relief, and Ron Villone and Hugo Castellanos each pitched an inning.

Cardinals outfielder Skip Shcumaker had two hits and raised his average to .394 for the spring.

Gonzalez said right fielder Jeremy Hermida (tight left hamstring) will start the season on the disabled list, retroactive to March 21. The goal is to have Hermida, who is playing in minor league games on a rehab stint, to make his season debut April 5 against the Pirates. Veteran Luis Gonzalez will start in right field in Monday's opener.

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