Erik Bedard’s first half officially ended Tuesday, when the Seattle Mariners said the oft-injured left-hander would not start before the All-Star break – and wouldn’t be among the first two or three starting pitchers afterward.

“We have enough pitching to get us to the break and then four days during the break, so why not use it to help him get id of all the nagging things bothering him?” asked manager Jim Riggleman.

Acquired in trade before spring training and named the Mariners opening day starter, Bedard has missed games this season because of a sore hip, back spasms and now a tender left shoulder.

When healthy, he’s gone 6-4 with a 3.67 earned run average, pitching 81 innings in 15 first-half starts.

With Bedard sidelined, the Mariners will return Ryan Rowland-Smith to the bullpen and start Jarrod Washburn on Saturday, then Miguel Batista on Sunday.

And after the All-Star break?

Riggleman said the tentative plan was to start Felix Hernandez, Washburn, Silva and then Bedard after the break.

“It would be nice to start the second half with the pitching staff we envisioned coming out of camp,” Riggleman said. “If we get Felix and Erik and J.J. (Putz) back healthy, we’re a much improved team.

Hernandez and Putz are on the disabled list, scheduled to return to the team early after the All-Star break. Bedard reported a tender shoulder after his last start.

Jim Riggleman continues to look at his full roster, and tonight’s lineup includes a new-look infield – one without Yuniesky Betancourt and Jose Lopez.

In their places, Willie Bloomquist will start at shortstop and Miguel Cairo at second base.

Here’s the full lineup:
Ichiro RF
Bloomquist SS
Ibanez LF
Vidro DH
Beltre 3B
Reed CF
Sexson 1B
Clement C
Cairo 2B
Silva RHP.

A few people e-mailed me this, but Erik Bedard went on a Philadelphia radio station.

Here's the interview.

It was relatively bland and boring, like most Bedard interviews. Apparently, we "say whatever we want" when it comes to him and his performance. Yeah, it's all our fault that he can't get past five innings in 100 pitches and then we write about it.

* Here's Larry game story from last night's loss to the Sacramento River Cats, er, Oakland A's

Like most of you, I watched the game on TV. I have a question: When Beltre forgot how many outs there were and then forgot to touch third on his retreat back to second, do you think honestly knew he did anything wrong? More specifically, do you think he knew he had to touch third again on his way back? To me it didn't. He had that same confused look that I used to see Sammy Sosa have when he played right field.

* Here's the game story from the San Francisco Chronicle.

* Here's the gamer from the Bay Area Newsgroup.

* It appears that the Mariners will be seeing some new players for the A's, apparently like five Cubs players since they were traded for Rich Harden.

* The game notebook led with RA Dickey's willingness to pitch every day.

* Sean White and the Rainiers got beat by White's former catcher at the University of Washington Ben Johnson.

* AUDIO ALERT: Here's Kim Ng on the radio with Softy from earlier today.

* The Hardball Times is pretty interesting blog. Most fans probably know about, but some don't. Anyway they have an annual piece called the Von Hayes All-Stars, which is a team comprised of players that take drastic downturns in production in their 30s. The Mariners have four players on this year's squad.

* I can't remember if I posted this lately. This is the single worst thing I've ever seen in baseball.