Willie Bloomquist has been placed on the 15-day disabled list with a strained hamstring. He is scheduled for an MRI on Tuesday, according to Mariners trainer Rick Griffin.

Manager Jim Riggleman admitted that Bloomquist might be done for the season.

"It's a very significant pull and I don't know if we'll see him the rest of the year," Riggleman said. "Willie plays so hard that if you get him back, you know he's going to go hard, you have to make sure the thing is absolutely 100 percent healthy or he will pull it again. We want to just to let him get strong."

Infielder Tug Hulett was called up from Triple A Tacoma. Hulett got the call late Saturday night in Tucson and took an 6 a.m. flight to Seattle.

"It's kind of like last time, a late night call and an early game and a very early flight," he said.

Also from the morning meeting with Riggleman ...

* Ryan Rowland-Smith will remain in the rotation indefinitely and will start Saturday in Minnesota.

* Riggleman was a big fan of Joe Maddon's use of the extra infielder last night. Riggleman said his college coach at Wake Forest used a similar tactic that he learned from watching the Dodgers when Walter Alston was the manager.

If the Mariners were to do a similar shift, Riggleman said he would most likely use Ichiro - who came up as a shortstop in Japan - as his extra infielder.

* With the injury to Bloomquist, Wlad Balentien will probably platoon with Jeremy Reed in centerfield. Both players will also see some time at DH. Riggleman said that he wants to play Balentien some in left, so Raul might get an occasional DH stint along with Ichiro every once in a while.

* Riggleman wasn't exactly pleased with Jose Lopez's defensive decisions last night (don't get me started on this), but he point to Loopez's decision to try and make a glove flip on a play as one of the myriad of little mistakes that have plagued the team this season.

* As for Yuni's failure to get a sac bunt down last night, Riggleman blamed baseball as a whole for failing to make it a priority to work on bunting enough. He believes there needs to be some level of quality practice at things like bunting, because just working on it during spring training.