Chris Volstad Demoted to Minors after "Rough Start"

   LOS ANGELES -- A long night for the Marlins. An even longer one for Chris Volstad, who was informed after Tuesday's 7-3 loss to the Dodgers that he was being sent to Triple A New Orleans. It's not Volstad's first emotion to NOLA. He was sent there last August, too.

   Volstad's major league career has not gone well since a promising rookie season in 2008 when he finished 6-4 to go with a nifty 2.88 ERA. Since then, he is 13-21, by far the worst record of any member of the current rotation who was with the team in '09.

    "It's tough because I want to be here," Volstad said after his record fell to 4-8 with Tuesday's loss. "I think I deserve to be here. Obviously there's stuff I need to work on. I need to go down there with a positive attitude and try to get back here as fast as I can."

For starters, Volstad needs to prove that he can win. He's recorded only one win since May 7. Beyond that, there are other issues, including his inability to hold runners. The Dodgers stole three bases off him on Tuesday.

"If you don't hold the runners, that's going to become a problem," said manager Edwin Rodriguez, who described Volstad's outing Tuesday as "rough."

The Marlins called up right-hander Burke Badenhop to replace Volstad on the roster, but are leaning toward having rookie Alejandro Sanabia take his place in the rotation. If Sanabia is indeed the fifth starter, he'll pitch Sunday in Arizona.

  Sanabia took over in relief of Volstad on Tuesday and turned in three good innings, allowing a home run to Andre Ethier but not much else. He struck out four.

  "There's stuff I need to do better, so I've got to go down there and fix some things," Volstad said.