Amid hot stretch, a bit of bullpen reshuffling

PITTSBURGH — Drew Steckenrider is back, and this time it will probably be for more than two days.

The Miami Marlins recalled the hard-throwing righty from Triple-A New Orleans on Saturday, while sending Brian Ellington, another hard-throwing righty, to the team in his place as the club tries to straighten out its middle relief while playing its best baseball of the season.

Ellington spurred the transaction with three rough outings in four nights, causing his ERA to balloon to 7.71 and WHIP to 2.74. Friday night against the Pirates, Ellington entered with the Marlins up by seven in the ninth but started with seven consecutive balls and two walks. When his third batter singled, manager Don Mattingly had seen enough.

Turns out, he had seen enough for more than just that night.

“It’s hard to use him when he’s not going to throw the ball over the plate,” Mattingly said. “Let him get his act together. We know he has a big arm and there’s definitely potential there, but it has to be better than that.”

Ellington’s bottom line had been solid — one earned run in 10

1⁄3 innings for a 0.87 ERA — until the Chicago Cubs blew him up for six runs in one-third of an inning this week. He also allowed one run in one inning Thursday against Pittsburgh.

Even while the results were good, however, Ellington’s peripheral statistics were not as great. He had a 17 percent walk rate while allowing a slash line of .279/.404/.372.

“To be honest with you, it was hard to trust that you can bring him in and he’s going to throw strikes,” Mattingly said. “The thing with Brian is to be able to somewhat locate the fastball, but also needs to be able to use the secondary enough to make you think about, ‘There may be a secondary pitch coming.’”

Steckenrider spent two games with the Marlins last month, playing in one of them and tossing a scoreless inning in his major league debut. He has dominated for New Orleans, posting a 1.65 ERA and 0.77 WHIP.

He made it to PNC Park about two hours before first pitch Saturday.

“He’s also a guy that throws the ball over the plate. That’s what we’ve seen. He’s always been able to locate a fastball,” Mattingly said. “He’s another guy that will continually be working on secondary stuff, but at this point he’s locating fastballs. That’s a different animal.”

Clawing his way back

Also from the right-handed relief department: Kyle Barraclough has pitched in the sixth inning in three consecutive appearances through Friday, two of those games not particularly close, Mattingly’s conscious attempt to get Barraclough out of high-leverage spots so he can straighten out.

The Marlins still see Barraclough as a primary late-inning option, but for now it’s more important he learns to be aggressive. Which he is doing, Mattingly said.

“I don’t like the word wakeup call, because these guys know what’s going on. If they’re not throwing the ball well, they know it,” Mattingly said. “We had a nice little talk in Miami. He came to the conclusion that he can’t be passive. He had to be aggressive and on the attack. That’s one of the things we’ve seen ever since that conversation. And it wasn’t me telling him that. It was him telling me that.”

Barraclough has walked only one out of 16 batters in his past three games, including none in two innings Friday.

Tazawa appears

Junichi Tazawa tossed two scoreless innings for High-A Jupiter Friday, his first rehab appearance while coming back from rib cartilage inflammation. He struck out two and allowed one hit.