Pirates" James McDonald Is Pitching More Efficiently PITTSBURGH (AP) - There was a time in James McDonald's career - any point before a month ago actually - when he would get two strikes on a batter and get cute. Rather than stay on the attack, McDonald tried to paint corners. It led to long at-bats and short outings. In spring training, the Pittsburgh Pirates" pitching coach, Ray Searage, decided it was time for a chat. "I said, "Dude you've got to get a little bit more pitch efficient, get the hitter out in four pitches, induce contact with three pitches or less," " Searage said. More importantly, Searage told the talented but inconsistent McDonald, 27, to trust his stuff and trust his catcher. Do both, Searage told McDonald, and he could become the kind of guy the Pirates could build a rotation around. The goal was to make McDonald more efficient, not turn him into strikeout pitcher. It is happening anyway. McDonald (2-1) has 25 strikeouts over his last three starts for the Pirates. The soft-spoken McDonald insists he is not trying to bowl batters over. His preference would be to induce opponents to make contact early and rely on his defense but allows, "if I need a strikeout, I can go get one." So can his teammates. A month into the season, Pittsburgh was a respectable 14th in the majors in strikeouts per nine innings (7.4). Heady territory for a team that was 28th in that category a year ago. The addition of the veterans Erik Bedard and A. J. Burnett has certainly helped - Bedard is in the top 15 in baseball in both strikeouts (37) and strikeouts per nine innings (9.79) - but so has the maturation of McDonald. General Manager Neal Huntington praised him for embracing the team's mind-set of pitching to contact rather than thinking strikeout the second a batter steps in the box. Strange as it sounds, it is one of the main reasons McDonald's strikeout total has spiked. Rather than try to miss bats, McDonald is pounding the strike zone. It has allowed him to get ahead quickly, and when he gets a favorable count, he no longer tries to get hitters to chase. Instead, he takes it right to them. "There's a distinct difference between trying to get the strikeout from pitch one, trying to make the perfect pitch," Huntington said, "and more often than not you get yourself in trouble because you're 2-0 instead of 0-2 and not trusting your stuff and letting it play. James has done a great job this year of getting early-count outs, but when he gets to two strikes, burying hitters. It is something that's permeated the staff, in part because of the rapport the pitchers have quickly built with catcher Rod Barajas, who signed as a free agent over the winter. Barajas spent spring training getting comfortable, and the trust level built quickly. Having caught just about every kind of pitcher imaginable during his 14-year career, Barajas was able to speed the process along. "I've spent a lot of time around the guys, around the coaches, picking everyone's brain," Barajas said. Going into the season, I felt like I had a pretty good idea of what they liked to do, what they could do and they couldn't do. Once the season started, just look at the results. Things seem to be going smoothly. True, though there are days the kinks are still evident. Barajas and Bedard engaged in a game-long battle of wills against St. Louis last week, leading to a series of visits to the mound that slowed the game. "If they were in the same library, they weren't reading the same book," Manager Clint Hurdle said with a laugh. It hardly mattered. Bedard struck out 11 batters, including a team-record seven straight at one point on a day the Pirates set a franchise record with 17 strikeouts in a nine-inning game. Though Bedard is a bit more methodical than Pittsburgh's other starters, the Pirates have no problem with him being patient if he continues to flummox hitters. Bedard is hardly overpowering, but he makes up for it with precision and craftiness. "He'll throw a breaking ball 3-1 for a strike," Searage said. "Then when it's 0-2, you're thinking breaking ball, but he's zipping a fastball by you at 91 and you're thinking, "What just happened?" " All those strikeouts have helped keep Pittsburgh competitive even as its offense has struggled. The Pirates have a 3.44 earned run average, seventh in the National League through Sunday. Whether they can keep it up remains to be seen, but there is a ripple effect throughout the organization. The team's farm system is littered with fastballers, including the former first-round picks Gerrit Cole and Jameson Taillon, and watching Bedard and McDonald go to work serves as a study guide of sorts on how to make the transformation from thrower to pitcher. "They see what a James McDonald is doing with the stuff he has and the ability to put players away quickly," Huntington said. It does help.