The Carmen Mlodzinski experiment turned another page tonight as the reliever turned starter continued to try and find his footing in the Pirates' 4-3 loss to the Angels.

On this occasion, the steps in the process were familiar. Mlodzinski set down seven of the first 10 batters he faced through the first three innings with Zach Neto reaching on a double to left field in the first and Luis Rengifo reaching on an error by Matt Gorski in the second. He set down the Angels in order in the third.

No harm done. 

However, things got out of hand in the fourth inning, as they have consistently for Mlodzinski throughout his first five starts.

The first mistake was something no pitcher wants to see as Mike Trout blooped a should be single to right field. But, after getting a decent jump on it, Bryan Reynolds tried to make a diving catch to eliminate the possible threat:

That ultimately set up the Angels to score three runs as Taylor Ward drove Trout in with a single before Logan O'Hoppe took advantage of a 1-1 fastball up in the zone and sent it into the seats in right field to tie the game at three.

"They put some good swings on fastballs on not terribly misexecuted pitches but not perfectly executed pitches," Mlodzinski said. "I think there are just parts of the game, especially as a starting pitcher, that you wish you had a few pitches back and that one to O’Hoppe is definitely one."

Mlodzinski set down three of the next four hitters he faced to get out of the inning. He then faced four hitters in the bottom of the fifth, which is when is night came to an end.

In his five innings of work, Mlodzinski threw 77 pitches, 50 for strikes, and allowed five hits while walking just one and striking out four. It was probably his second-best start of the season, after giving up five hits and just one earned run against the Cardinals on April 7. 

However, the question still remains if Mlodzinski can be a starter in the major leagues.

Five starts is a relatively small sample size to go off of in the grand scheme of things. But, the numbers show that the right-hander is truly effective early in games.

In the first two innings of his five starts, Mlodzinski hasn't given up a run, has allowed six hits, walked two and has struck out five. He has an ERA of 0.00. But, that's where things start to change. He has an ERA of 7.20 in the third, 17.36 in the fourth and 15.43 in the fifth. In those three innings, he's allowed 25 hits, 17 earned runs and has given up seven walks.

So, what's plaguing the right-hander as he gets deeper into ball games? 

"I think we've seen the stuff gets up on him," Derek Shelton said after this one. "Up and in the middle of the plate. That's an adjustment we have to make."

If one would look at the third inning of tonight's start, all three hits were on fastballs in the upper half of the strike zone. Ward and O'Hoppe both made great contact on their hits with exit velocities of 106.5 and 102.2, respectively. Even on Zach Neto's single in the fifth, Mlodzinski left a sweeper up in the zone that the shortstop was able to take advantage of.

It's been a consistent theme for Mlodzinski this season and I asked him after if he's noticed anything that he's consistently struggled with as he's reached the third, fourth and fifth innings. 

"I’m just not creating the space that I need to create in the zone where guys will have to respect the top of the zone with the hard stuff and then the slider would play better," Mlodzinski said. "So, today, I did a better job of that; the slider was able to get me more outs. But that’s been the consistent thing now. I have to get my fastball up in the zone, later in the game, when I start to fatigue."

Before this season, Mlodzinski hadn't started a game as a real starter. He's started games as an opener, going one or two innings before handing it off to the bullpen and he had been effective in that sense. He only allowed one earned run in four starts a season ago. 

Now, with five real starts under his belt, he's learning how to make it through the order a second time around. He admitted the results haven't been there this season, but as he gathers more information from each start, he said he's learning how he needs to change and how he can attack hitters.

"Right now I’m in a position where I need to keep making adjustments and that’s ultimately going to help me become a better pitcher in general," Mlodzinski said. "Just because you can get through the lineup one time, or even twice, that's great. But the guys on the other team are going to tell you what you need to adjust that second or third time through and that for me is important right now."