BRADENTON, Fla. -- The Pirates' Kevin Hart made another calamitous start Wednesday in his increasingly imperiled bid to make the rotation, walking six of 12 batters and hitting another in the 6-3 loss to the Detroit Tigers this afternoon at McKechnie Field.

That raised Hart's spring walk total to an outrageous 13 in 4 2/3 innings, even as his other numbers today -- one run, one hit in 1 2/3 innings -- actually lowered his ERA to 15.43.

Is he worried about making the team?

"I'll let them worry about that," Hart said. "It's funny because I think I can really succeed. That's the frustrating thing: I feel like I'm beating myself. I'd like to see some results, and I will. It's a matter of time. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of time right now."

The walk total does not tell the full story: Hart misfired on 34 of his excruciating total of 53 pitches, and he had catcher Ryan Doumit lunging to his left and right, high and low. When Detroit's Carlos Guillen stepped into the box with bases loaded in the second, he did so with no visible intention beyond survival. He saw four balls and never budged the bat.

Pitching coach Joe Kerrigan pulled Hart right after that.

Management's stance is that Hart is dueling with Daniel McCutchen for the fifth starter's job, but Hart has gotten all of the Grapefruit League starts between the two. Moreover, there have been strong indications that, rather than a true duel, Hart entered with an upper hand because of his livelier stuff.

McCutchen, in two relief appearances and a minor league intrasquad start, has given up one run over eight innings and has yet to walk anyone.

Hart acknowledged having trouble repeating his delivery, despite extensive work with Kerrigan through the winter and spring on exactly that.

"When the effort level that you're putting into the bullpen isn't transferring to the mound, you could say part of that is repeating delivery and part of that is being confident in my delivery and trusting it," he said. "And I didn't do that today."

The Pirates took a 2-1 lead in the second when Ryan Church lifted an RBI double to left-center and later scored on a balk.

Jeff Karstens followed Hart with 1 1/3 innings of scoreless relief -- needing only nine pitches -- but D.J. Carrasco and Brendan Donnelly each gave up two runs, and Detroit led, 5-1, after five.

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