ESPN Buster Olney Blog

Jason Jaramillo walked into the trainer's room the other day, and someone told him some news: Ryan Doumit was hurt, and there was a chance it might be serious. "Be ready," Jaramillo was told.

Jaramillo had opened this, his first month in the big leagues, as the Pittsburgh Pirates' backup catcher, but on Tuesday he overheard starting catcher Doumit tell others he had fractured a bone in his right wrist, an injury sustained while swinging the bat in Sunday's game, of all things.

Doumit will be out of action until midseason, and at age 26, Jaramillo is getting his first chance to be a regular in the major leagues. He'll serve as the usher for a Pittsburgh pitching staff that has started strong this season.

"I prepared my whole life for this opportunity," Jaramillo said Wednesday after the Pirates completed a sweep of the Florida Marlins. "It's kind of bittersweet, because Doumit is a big part of this club."

Jaramillo was selected by the Phillies in the second round of the 2004 draft but never advanced beyond Triple-A. Typically, contenders will add an extra catcher or two when the rosters expand in September, but despite the fact that Jaramillo was the primary catcher for Philadelphia's Triple-A affiliate, he was never summoned to the big leagues. Lou Marson leapfrogged him in the Phillies' depth chart.

"I was kind of disappointed," Jaramillo said. "I felt like I had done a good job."

But in his time in the Phillies' system, he played with a manager on the rise named John Russell and worked with hitting coach Don Long. Both were hired by the Pirates during the offseason of 2007-08. What Jaramillo didn't know was that Neal Huntington, who had taken over as the Pirates' general manager after the 2007 season, had seen him catch while Huntington was still in the Indians' organization and liked him -- and both Russell and Long spoke highly of his work ethic, his intelligence and his ability to catch and throw. Shortly after last season ended, Huntington asked the Phillies about the possibility of making a deal for Jaramillo, and in December the Pirates traded Ronny Paulino for him.

What the Pirates envisioned at the time, of course, was that Jaramillo would be a backup to Doumit, a rising star, and start a handful of games. His responsibilities now will go far beyond that -- Jaramillo started all three games against the Marlins, going 3-for-10 at the plate and helping the Pirates' pitchers limit Florida to six runs in the series.

Because Jaramillo is new to the Pirates' organization, he still is learning about some of the Pittsburgh pitchers; for example, he has caught Zach Duke just once. His early impressions of each of the Pirates' five starters:

Paul Maholm, who is 3-0 with a 2.03 ERA after winning the decision against the Marlins on Wednesday: "He is one of those guys who is really fun to catch, because he can throw all of his pitches for strikes. Tempo with him is really good, really important. He's pitching with a lot of confidence."

Ian Snell (1-2, 4.24): "Another one whose tempo is really important. I actually caught him quite a few times in spring training. A guy who's real fiery. There was a time when I went out to chat with him, when we were playing the Phillies, and it was a really intense conversation. He was ready to go."

Zach Duke (2-1, 2.95): "He's kind of like Paul [Maholm]. You get the same kind of feeling when you're catching him."

Ross Ohlendorf (1-2, 3.00): "He's a character -- a brilliant guy. His changeup is coming around, and he throws a really heavy sinker. Very articulate, and he thinks out on the mound -- he's thinking constantly, batter by batter and pitch by pitch. When you go out to talk with him, he knows exactly what you're going to say before you say it."

Jeff Karstens (1-0, 3.60): "He got skipped [in the rotation] in that first time around, and he's a touch guy, so he needs to pitch -- and he had a pretty good outing the last time around.

"You look at our arms on the mound, it looks like it should be a fun summer. As they go, we go, and they're throwing well right now."

It will be left to Jaramillo and new backup Robinzon Diaz to catch them, at least until Doumit gets back. The Pirates took an early lead against the Marlins on Wednesday as the sunshine tried to fight through the clouds in Pittsburgh. Florida scored twice in the top of the sixth to tie the game but, as Nyjer Morgan singled to drive in Delwyn Young with the go-ahead run, the sun seemed to break through the clouds and brightened as Young stole third and scored on an errant throw. They're having fun, writes Dejan Kovacevic.

Huntington on the early performance of the Pirates' staff: "It's been great. We've got a contact-oriented staff. We'd like to see a few more strikeouts, but we've been pretty good defensively." Perry Hill, the team's infield coach, has been working with second baseman Freddy Sanchez. Shortstop Jack Wilson is consistently charting as one of the best defenders at his position, and while Morgan is not close to being the kind of offensive force Jason Bay was, he is better defensively.

Nate McLouth is positioned more deeply this season and has been even better than he was in 2008, when he won a Gold Glove. The Pirates have turned the most double plays in the big leagues, as mentioned in this notebook.

• Milton Bradley had some issues in the Cubs' loss Wednesday night, failing to hustle and drawing the ire of the fans at Wrigley Field. The Cubs are waiting for Bradley's bat to make an appearance, writes Chris De Luca.

• One of the strangest plays you will see all season: With runners at first and third and one out, there was a chopper hit back to the Yankees' CC Sabathia. He turned and fired to Derek Jeter at second base, in an attempt to start a double play, and Jeter -- seeing that Jason Giambi was breaking from third base and that it might be difficult to finish a double play with a throw to first -- threw home. To nobody. Jorge Posada had vacated home plate to go back up what he anticipated to be a throw to first base, and Jeter's throw sailed past home plate umpire C.B. Bucknor as Giambi jogged home. Posada took the blame for the play, writes Jeff Roberts.

Sabathia heard his first boos as a Yankee in the middle of Wednesday's game after allowing the tying run on a single to Matt Holliday and getting pulled with the score at 7-all. But later, Melky Cabrera did something only Babe Ruth had accomplished before him -- hit the first walk-off homer in a Yankee Stadium. Mark Simon of ESPN Research went into the archives for this stuff from the first Yankee Stadium walk-off, on July 3, 1923, against the Senators in the 15th inning.

The New York Times provided the following account: "[George] Mogridge made only one mistake. He gave Ruth a fastball through the groove in the last half of the fifteenth and the Bambino swatted it on a line into the right field seats, just a few feet inside the foul line. It was a rifle shot of a home run and it broke up the game. As soon as the ball was hit, the 5,000 spectators rushed out on the field and Ruth had to elbow his way through a dense crowd before he could touch the plate with the winning run."

• Holliday is really respected by talent evaluators as a dangerous hitter, but here's the deal: He has 49 at-bats and no homers, and to cash in as a free agent this fall he's got to do a whole lot better in the extra-base hit department. As much as Holliday has done as a hitter in recent years, he must prove to rival executives that he can put up big power numbers outside Coors Field. It's as simple as that.

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