A.J. Burnett discusses elbow injury

CINCINNATI — For A.J. Burnett, Friday night served as a test. 

Angry that his velocity was down and unable to loosen up his right elbow, he started throwing as hard as he could. 

“It was a matter of, I was pretty much fed up with it, got angry and was just, hey, if it's going to go, it's going to go,” Burnett said. “I was just kind of letting it go. Seeing what was left.”

When Burnett says, “it’s going to go,” he is referring to the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow. That ligament connects the bones in the upper and lower arms and handles a lot of stress during a pitching motion. When it frays or tears, it can be replaced with a tendon from another part of the body in a procedure known as Tommy John surgery, which Burnett had in 2003.

“I’m not going to be coming out of the game unless I can't pick up a baseball, so I was going to see where I was at,” he said. “I've stayed around 90, 92 all year pretty much. That's where I pitch at, that's where I'm comfortable at. I couldn't even get to that the other day. So I was just, enough's enough and seeing where I was at. I guess it didn't go. It might have went, I don't know. We'll see.”

Burnett expected that either the UCL or flexor tendon in his forearm were the issue. The Pirates doctors will examine him Monday. Either way, the 38-year-old righty who is pitching in his final season will not have surgery.

“It's just a matter of doing enough treatment and doing it where it's tolerable again and building up some pain tolerance so I can stay on the mound in the stretch run,” he said.

“I'd probably get it fixed when I'm retired but no point in doing it right now. I'm here to pitch and I'm going to do whatever I can to get back on that mound in two weeks. I'm not going to come back and take the mound if I can't throw. If I can't throw 90, or if I'm throwing how I was throwing the other night early, I can't do that to these guys and this team. I plan on getting back to where I was so I can help us out down the stretch.”

***Clint Hurdle said he planned to return Aramis Ramirez, who gets a day off today, to the cleanup spot for the Cubs series, but also said he has considered moving Jung Ho Kang there. Kang bats cleanup today.

“I'm not a big fan of continuing to pile things on Jung Ho's plate. ... There's going to be a time where you overload his plate if you keep adding things to it,” Hurdle said.

“Today with Rammy out of there, it makes more sense. We'll see if it's something that plays out. Obviously we need to have somebody in that spot that can not just provide protection but also some production.”

Kang hit .379 in July with a .443 OBP. He hit fifth in his final season in Korea, but previously batted third and fourth.

“I'd like to see the guys that hit third and fourth on that team,” Hurdle joked.

***The Pirates will shuffle their rotation so they don’t send three lefties against the Cubs, Hurdle said. Right now, Francisco Liriano, J.A. Happ and Jeff Locke would be scheduled to pitch.