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Well that was just ugly in many ways, particularly for the Mariners bullpen. Apparently the unexpected day off that Jarrod Washburn provided didn't help as much.

Before we talk about the bullpens struggles, let's talk about Erik Bedard for a moment.

Bedard pitched four innings, gave up two earned runs (with a little help from Franklin Gutierrez's throwing error) and two hits, while striking out eight and walking just one.

For a guy that hadn't pitched in a game since June 7th, he looked pretty strong. His curveball was sharp and his velocity was solid.

According to pitch F/x from Brooks Baseball, Bedard's velocity on his fastball was around 92 mph and he hit 94.

Bedard was typically quiet and unimpressed with his outing, of course, he didn't seemed thrilled with some incessant questioning from one person either.

Here's a modified transcript of the 1 minute, 50 seconds of goodness

Did it feel like a month away? Yeah, the first inning I was a little off, but then I started throwing strikes and started getting them out.

What he changed after the first? I don’t know. Just throwing strikes. That’s about it.


How this felt compared to sim game? I felt the same. My arm feels good, so I’m ready to go. I don’t know. You never forget what you’re gonna do, so I just try to throw strikes and hope my team wins.

On what he did differently? You just try to make adjustments as you’re throwing. If I wasn’t getting on top of curveball, I’d try to get on top, and fastball, same thing.

On his next outing? Just the same, and I’ll just have a higher pitch count. This is a game of adjustments and you have to adjust while the game’s going on.

How different was this compared to sim game? it’s just more adrenaline. You’ve just got to control that and pitch your game.

Bedard was really just a sidenote in this game since, the Mariners relievers combined to throw five innings and give up 10 runs on nine hits. Of the four relievers only Sean White didn't give up a hit or a run.

Bedard left with a 3-2 lead, and it was 12-3 deficit going into the ninth.

“We had a good ballgame going and then the wheels fell off,” Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu said.

Kind of slightly.

Chris Jakubauskas relieved Bedard in the fifth and looked solid, but Wakamatsu thought that in the sixth after Jakubauskas gave up lead-off single, he got very defensive in his pitching, trying not to make a mistake to Aubrey Huff with one out and a runner on first.

"We talk about the success of our pitching staff being based off of how aggressive we are," Wakamatsu said. "I thought Jak came out in the sixth and tried to protect the lead. For me it really came down to getting behind on Huff 3-0, that was kind of the turning point of the game. I felt he should have challenged him a little more."

Look at the mlb.com pitch sequence (right) to see what Wak is talking about.

Instead, down 3-0, Jakubauskas intentionally tossed ball four. It would prove to be costly as Nolan Reimold singled up the middle to tie the game at 3-3. But the dagger came on the next at-bat when Luke Scott hit a shot to center field that Franklin Gutierrez first took a couple steps in on only to realize it was going to be over his head. He retreated but couldn't glove it. Scott got a triple and two runs scored to push the lead to 5-3 and chase Jakubauskas. From there it just snowballed. The Orioles finished with four in the sixth and then tacked on six in the seventh, including a three-run homer for Scott, who finished 3-for-4 with 7 RBI.

“In two innings, the game was basically out of control,” Wakamatsu said.

Here's the lines on the Mariner relievers ...
Jakubauskas -- 1 1/3 IP 4 hits, 4 runs, 1 BB
Kelley --- 1 IP, 4 hits, 5 runs, 2 BB,
Corcoran --- 1 2/3 IP, 1 hit, 1 run, 1 HR
White --- 1 IP, 1 K

Obviously, Shawn Kelley is still fighting off the rust, which Wak alluded to after the game, saying he's fighting his mechanics a little and Roy Corcoran was trying to be aggressive but just left a pitch up.

Offensively though, Jeremy Guthrie was not feeling well and was bothered by light-headedness and a queasy stomach and the Mariners missed out in the second and early in the third when he had some walks to put runners on base.

"We had a chance to blow it open," Wakamatsu said.

Another quick note Orioles manager Dave Trembley followed up his meltdown on the field with another one in the clubhouse, including a bit of a rant and some tossing of things. I haven't gotten quite the details, but I'll keep you posted.

=> Read more!

James McOwen extending his hit streak to 44 games tonight as he picked up as single to left in the eighth inning of High Desert's game in San Jose.

McOwen had been 0-for-3 coming into the at-bat.

Greetings from Safeco Field. They had the Longball Bombers just out hitting softballs into the stands. If you've never seen them before they are four slowpitch players roughly the size of football linemen that absolutely obliterate softballs. One guy almost hit the "S" in the Safeco Field sign above the upper deck in left field.

Anyway it's pretty impressive (even though it's slowpitch, and they couldn't hit my rise ball) and all the players from the Orioles and Mariners were enjoying the show. One player in particular Russell Branyan seemed amused. He has the same swing as those guys and the same build. I think we've found a post-baseball career for Russell. He can go by Russell the Muscle as Angie the Annoying calls him during pre and postgame shows.

Top of first -- not a great start
Brian Roberts is out of the line-up tonight. He's been battling some sickness and also some criticism for his lack of effort from Orioles fans. Adam Jones is hitting lead-off something I haven't seen him do since his days as a Rainiers. Well there will be no no-hitter tonight as Jones leads off with a bloop single to right. Maybe Ichiro would normally get there, but I really think he's fighting some fatigue and with tomorrow being a day game, I would expect him to DH.

Erik Bedard seems to have decent velocity, but he barely scraped Markakis with a pitch to put runners on first and second. He struck out Ty Wigginton with a 94 mph fastball and then made Aubrey Huff look silly with a nasty curve for a strikeout. He appeared to throw the same pitch on 3-2 to Nolan Reimold but it was called a ball by home plate umpire Tom Hallion. With bases loaded, Bedard then gave up a single up the middle to Luke Scott. Franklin Gutierrez's throw to the plate was less than stellar and it skipped off the mound and bounced left of Rob Johnson and past Bedard, who was supposed to be backing up, into the stands.

Jones and Markakis scored on the play, but manager Dave Trembley argued that Reimold should have also been awarded home. But after about five minutes, the ruling stayed.

I'm guessing we won't be getting this game done in two hours and nine minutes.

In between the inning Trembley was arguing with Hallion about the play and was tossed. Trembley, who's usually mild mannered, went insane. His face was beat red and he was absolutely screaming at Hallion. He then tossed his hat to the ground and stormed off. Lou Piniella would be proud.

Bottom of first
Bedard threw 28 pitches in that inning so his day could be done early if this pace keeps up. Ichiro leads off with a single. Griffey is rocking some Billie Jean by Michael Jackson as his walk-up music in memory of the deceased pop star. He's also rocking one white glove in honor of Michael. Junior draws a walk. But does not moonwalk to first base, thankfully.

And now Guthrie is bothered by something and we have another game break. This game is destined for four hours and nine minutes.

Gutierrez atones for the throwing error by crushing a Guthrie pitch into the left field for a three-run homer. Mariners lead 3-2 and Gutierrez has a career high 10 game hitting streak. It is Gutierrez's ninth homer of the season.

Second inning
Bedard strikes out Wieters, Andino and Jones with ease. He's at 45 pitches after two innings. Meanwhile, his counterpart Jeremy Guthrie is still all over the place. He walked Rob Johnson to lead-off the inning, but managed to get out of it. Mariners 3, Orioles 2

Third Inning
Well Jeremy Guthrie's night is over with. He walked Russell Branyan, got Jose Lopez to ground out and then walked Junior. That was enough for bench coach Dave Jauss, who brought in big lefty Mark Hendrickson, who hails from Mt. Vernon and played hoops for WSU. Hendrickson struck out Gutz and Langerhans to end the inning.

Fourth inning
Bedard strikes out his seventh hitter of the game and then gets out of the inning. He's at 75 pitches. He may start the next inning and Chris Jakubauskas will be in for him shortly thereafter.

Ronny Cedeno bunts for a hit, when his bunt hits the bat on the ground, it seems like either bunts for a hit, strikes out or hits a homer. The only three options.

Fifth Inning
Sorry for the delay, my computer was acting sluggish and had to reboot and run the virus scan. Anyway, Bedard is out after four, having allowed two runs on two hits with eight strikeouts.

Mark Hendrickson has shut down the Mariners bats, particularly the left-handed hitters. The Mariners need to add some runs, because I don't think a one-run lead is safe.

Sixth inning
The wheels have fallen off for the Mariners. Jakubauskas gave up soft RBI single to Nolan Reimold and then Gutierrez uncharacteristically misplayed a ball in center resulting in a three-run triple.

The Mariners get nothing as Woodward is robbed of a double by Melvin Mora.

Seventh inning
A rare miscue from Gutz opens the floodgates for a long inning in which the Orioles get seven runs and the bullpen doesn't look so good.

Not a bunch of a lot things, but some decent stuff coming from the pregame meeting with manager Don Wakamatsu.

* Yuniesky Betancourt is doing drills right now and at Wakamatsu's suggestion is taking ground balls at second base(pictured above). He'll probably head to his rehab assignment with the Rainiers in the next few days. Tacoma returns to Cheney Stadium for five straight home games starting tomorrow. Wakamatsu said that they aren't sure what Betancourt's schedule would be but they want him to play at least one game at second base.

* We listed the roster move earlier, Wakamatsu said that the move is precautionary for the Mariners and Mike Sweeney and he will see a doctor and possibly get some x-rays. With the move, it leaves the Mariners with 13 pitchers on the rosters. When asked about the possibility of another roster move to add a position player, Wakamatsu said its being discussed.

We’re dialoging with that right now," he said. "We’ll see. If there’s a need, we’re going to have to make that move. The biggest thing right now, we go through each game and see where it takes us."

Wakamatsu then mentioned that the won't really a need a fifth starter until July 25th. Right now, the Mariners have seven starters - Felix, Bedard, Washburn, Morrow, Vargas and Olson.

So who is the fifth starter?
"They've all pitched great, it's more about looking at different things and usage and where guys slot out and what's best for the team," Wakamatsu said.

Logically, one will go to the bullpen (Olson) and Vargas would go to Triple A and continue to stay stretched out. But Wakamatsu wouldn't commit to that yet.

"Depends on who it is and are dialogue in the next couple of days," he said.

* If you notice below, Kenji Johjima is out of the line-up for the second straight day. The Japanese media asked if it was a question of the match-ups. My inner cynic says, "Yeah, it's the match-up of having Johnson catch Bedard. Since we know Bedard has had minor issues with Joh's game calling in the past."

But Wakamatsu, who's been adamant about not having personal catchers, said the decision was based on a little bit of everything.

"I look at a lot of different things," he said. "I think Rob's done a good job, and Joh's done a good job. I do look at just about everything. I look at opposing teams and match-ups and every day we try to go with the best chance of winning and today Rob gives us the best opportunity."

* Until something changes Ken Griffey Jr. will handle the bulk of the DH duties, unless a roster move is made. But expect to see Ichiro to DH at least once in the Texas series, or perhaps even tomorrow.

Orioles (36-47)
Adam Jones CF
Nick Markakis RF
Ty Wigginton 2B
Aubrey Huff 1B
Nolan Reimold LF
Luke Scott DH
Melvin Mora 3B
Matt Wieters C
Robert Andino SS
------------
RHP Jeremy Guthrie (6-8, 5.20 ERA)

Mariners (43-39)
Ichiro Suzuki RF
Russell Branyan 1B
Jose Lopez 2B
Ken Griffey Jr. DH
Franklin Gutierrez CF
Ryan Langerhans LF
Rob Johnson C
Chris Woodward 3B
Ronny Cedeno SS
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LHP Erik Bedard (5-2, 2.47 ERA)

Well, it's not quite at that level as the headline suggested. But Jarrod Washburn has been the talk around town for the last 15 or so hours - and with good reason - following his scintillating one-hit performance last night against the Orioles.

Here's my game story from last night.

Here's Jeff Zrebiec's game story from the Baltimore Sun.

Washburn made the local radio rounds today doing interviews with Brock and Salk at 710 ESPN (listen here) and Ian Furness at KJR(listen here).

Perhaps the most interesting things of those interviews were that Washburn admitting that he was considering retirement next year, but that now after the way he's pitched this season, he wants to keep throwing. More specifically, he wouldn't mind throwing for the Mariners next season.

On both interviews he said he was amenable to re-signing with the Mariners. In his interview with Brock and Salk, he mentioned pitching coach Rick Adair and the work he's done with as a big reason for him wanting to continue pitching in the future and pitching for the Mariners.

"If I do play past this year, I would love to be able to work with him some more," Washburn said.

Washburn also went into more detail about the mechanical change he talked about last night. It isn't anything in his wind-up, in fact, it's before he starts his delivery and it is just sticking his butt out. It helps him stand tall and gets his hips in better position on his delivery. Something so simple apparently has paid off.

As for Washburn, he admitted to Furness that he doesn't want to be traded and if he is traded that would mean the Mariners took a major nosedive over the next few weeks. Washburn believes this team can win now and he wants to stay ... which is a much different feeling that last year.

Buster Olney was ESPN TV today and said that right now Washburn has the highest trade value of he'll ever have and possibly of any pitcher in baseball right now ... well except for Roy Halladay, who is apparently and unbelievably is available for a possible trades.

So with Washburn's value being so high, Jack Z can't trade him can he? Probably not right now with the M's still in it. But that doesn't mean big Jack should stop taking calls or offers on Washburn, Bedard, Batista or Branyan or anyone not named Felix or Ichiro. So much can change in three weeks that he has to keep all bases covered. Realistically Zduriencik can be play both sides as a buyer and a seller right up until the deadline.

We all knew that the Mariners had to make a roster move today when they activated Erik Bedard off the DL, but the decision to place Mike Sweeney on the 15-day DL wasn't something we were completely expecting.

Sweeney has been battling back spasms since the Boston road trip and manager Don Wakamatsu said Sweeney was "day-to-day" on Monday. It's retroactive to July 6th, so he'll be eligible to come off on July 21st.

By my rudimentary count, it leaves the Mariners with 13 pitches and 12 position players. Seems strange to carry that many pitchers especially since the Ms were carrying 11 pitchers for a long time. Of course with Bedard being on a pitch count, the extra relief may help, but bringing up another position player and send down Olson to keep him throwing in Triple A. I guess we'll find out when we meet with Wakamatsu later today.

High Desert outfielder James McOwen extended his hitting streak to 43 games with a solo home run to right in the fifth inning of High Desert's 10-9 win over Visalia. McOwen wasn't done adding a two-run triple later in the game.

McOwen finished 2-for-4 with a two runs scored and three RBI and a walk. He's now hitting .354 on the season.

The 43-game hitting streak tied him with three other players most recently Brandon Watson (2007). It's the longest minor-league streak since 1954.

McOwen has aways to go.

Check out this story and list from AOL Fanhouse

Top Minor-League Hitting Streaks
Player, Year Games
Joe Wilhoit (Wichita), 1919 -- 69
Joe DiMaggio (San Francisco), 1933 -- 61
Roman Mejias (Waco), 1954 -- 55
Otto Pahlman (Danville), 1922 -- 50
Jack Ness (Oakland), 1915 -- 49
Harry Chozen (Mobile), 1945 -- 49
Johnny Bates (Nashville), 1929 -- 46
Brandon Watson (Columbus), 2007 -- 43
Eddie Marshall (Milwaukee), 1935 -- 43
Howie Bedell (Louisville), 1947 -- 43
Orlando Moreno (Big Spring), 1961 -- 43
James McOwen (High Desert), '09 -- 43

Think about that, Joe Dimaggio hit in 61 straight in the minors and 56 straight in the majors. Unreal.

photo from milb.com