T.J. McFarland on rejoining the Orioles

NEW YORK - With his left knee now sound and his sinker back with its normal movement, left-hander T.J. McFarland rejoins the Orioles' bullpen today.

In the latest shuffling in the Orioles 'pen today, McFarland was reinstated from the 15-day disabled list. The Orioles also designated right-hander Logan Ondrusek for assignment off the 25-man roster.

McFarland, 27, was placed on the 15-day DL on June 30 (retroactive to June 29) with left knee inflammation. Over five rehab games (four starts) between the GCL Orioles (one game), Single A-Frederick (two games), and Double-A Bowie (two games), he notched a 6.48 ERA over 8 1/3 innings with eight strikeouts.

"I'm happy that the rehab went well and I'm ready to come back and help the team anyway I can," McFarland said. "I'm just glad I needed that time to get it right and get back here. I don't feel anything at all. I feel stronger than ever.

"I obviously wasn't expecting a two month DL stint. That's kinda what you run into when you have an injury like that where you're not quite sure what it is. However long it took, it needed time to get right. I gave it ample time to do that, so I'm happy."

After some rocky rehab outings, McFarland said he felt better about his two most recent outings at Bowie. He pitched a scoreless inning on 12 pitches for the Baysox last night. It took him some time to knock some rust off his sinker.

"The last two outings have been a lot better. Obviously, the couple that I had in Frederick weren't as well. When you are on a rehab assignment like that, the main focus is to be healthy, but at some point you need to have some results. I was kind of able to find myself, recollect and was able to get back to what I knew I was able to do, which was throw sinkers, throw strikes. I was able to sharpen up a few other pitches, so that's where we are.

"All sinker ball guys, it's on feel. I was out for a month, wasn't throwing. Which was good for the arm, but not the best thing for a sinker. You kind of lose that feel. Those two outings when I didn't look so well was because I didn't have my sinker. It's not a good thing to flatten out a sinker. It just took some time to get back on the mound, repititions. I feel good right right now and I feel exactly where I should be," he said.