Any night that Felix pitches is a good night, and I also like watching the Rays and what they've done with their club. Evan Longoria is a player I'd pay to watch.

First Inning
Felix doesn't seem particularly sharp. Of course an error by Jack Wilson doesn't help the situation. But still he loaded the bases before getting Wilson to make a nifty back-hand play for a force out to end the inning. Still, Felix threw a few too many pitches that inning.

How is Russell Branyan's back? Just fine thank you. He hit a deep solo bomb to center to give the Mariners a 1-0 lead.

Second inning
Felix is all over the place, back-to-back walks to BJ Upton and the non-hitting Dioner Navarro. A passed ball from Rob Johnson moves Upton up a base and an error by Adrian Beltre scores a run. Another passed ball from Johnson allows the runners to move up again which set up CArl Crawford for an RBI single. Some stellar baseball here. Felix walks another guy and then gives up a sac fly for a run. Mercifully the inning ends on a fly out and it's now 3-1 and he's thrown 52 pitches.

Third inning
A 1-2-3 inning for Felix. That's supposed to be the norm, but not tonight.

The Mariners don't exactly look like an offensive juggernaut tonight.

Fourth inning
Another long inning for Felix, who gives up hits to Longoria and Crawford. Felix has thrown 77 pitches already.

Jeff Niemann is looking like Cy Young right now.

Fifth Inning
Felix serves up a monster bomb to Pat Burrell off the front of the upper deck in left field. A facade is proper word I guess.

The M's go down 1-2-3 for the second straight inning.

Sixth inning
A rare 1-2-3 inning for Felix, a not so rare 1-2-3 for the Mariners.

Seventh inning
Felix walks the first two hitters he faces and is lifted. he walked a season-high six hitters and allowed five runs - three earned on five hits and struck out seven. He put a good fight. Sean White allows a run to score on a grounder by Pat Burrell, and it is now 5-1.

Griffey makes it 4-2, hitting a solo homer to right on his bobble-head night. Beltre follows up with a single and Wilson dumps a one-out bloop into right, which knocks Niemann out of the game. The Rays bring in Ryan Rowland-Smith's buddy from Down Under Grant Balfour and Rob Johnson greets him with an RBI single. He then hits pinch hitter Mike Sweeney in the arm on a 3-2 pitch and Sweeney does a Roger Dorn on the play. That brings Ichiro to the plate and Brian Shouse into the game.

Ichiro promptly hits a 1-0 pitch up the middle to score two runs and tie the game. But that's where it stays. it's a new ball game as they say.

Well, Erik Bedard had an MRI today, and the results of which are in the hands of the Mariners medical staff along with the original MRI results Bedard had a few months ago in Los Angeles.

So what is the diagnosis?

Well according to Don Wakamatsu:

"They found some issues in his shoulder," Wakamatsu said. "We don't know the severity of it yet. But there's something in there causing some discomfort, and they saw it. Right now, we're going to wait and talk to the doctors some more, and try to come up with definitive plan on what we're going to do with his rehab, and determine what he needs to do to progress. We really don't have all the details yet."

Something? As in ....

"All I've heard so far is there's some slight fraying," Wakamatsu said. "When you talk to a player, and what he's gone through this year, especially the situation we're at, you know there's something in there. It's just knowing the severity of it, and how we deal with it from this point. I mentioned it yesterday, I had a similar situation. I had a tear in my elbow ligament. MRI's, nothing ever showed up until they went in there and actually found something. When you talk to a player, you never question if they're actually hurt. Especially in his case, we know he wants to pitch and compete for this ballpark."

So this fraying is in Bedard's shoulder, but we don't know if its his labrum, rotator cuff or what. Because Bedard didn't sign his HIPAA release form, we can't ask trainer Rick Griffin or team surgeon Dr. Edward Khalfyan.

There isn't a cyst in there like last time, this is fraying. To where or what extent nobody seems certain. We may hear tonight or in the next few days. All pitchers experience some level of fraying in their shoulders simply because the action of throwing causes it, so the level of fraying and the damage done is the key in this situation.

As for David Aardsma and the hole in his butt... cheek, Wakamatsu was to meet with team doctors to determine whether he can go tonight, but it is healing fast. I did not check it out, but Rob Johnson told me it was gross and said the wound was similar to when a hot dog splits from being on a barbecue too long only that the wound goes down about two inches.

Rays (60-48)
Jason Bartlett SS
Carl Crawford LF
Evan Longoria 3B
Ben Zobrist RF
Carlos Pena 1B
Pat Burrell DH
Willy Aybar 2B
BJ Upton CF
Dioner Navarro C
------------
RHP Jeff Niemann (10-5, 3.62 ERA)

Mariners (56-52)
Ichiro RF
Russell Branyan 1B
Jose Lopez 2B
Ken Griffey Jr. DH
Adrian Beltre 3B
Franklin Gutierrez CF
Jack Wilson SS
Rob Johnson C
Michael Saunders LF
----------
RHP Felix Hernandez (12-4, 2.78 ERA)

Well, it was thought that Doug Fister's removal from the game last night was precautionary when Jason Vargas blew up early, but it was something more.

Vargas was optioned to Triple A Tacoma, and the Mariners have selected Fister from Tacoma. Fister is technically "selected" because he's not on the 40-man roster, but a glance at the Mariners 40-man roster right now, only list 37 names, so they won't have to drop somebody from it.

"We had Jason Vargas in a little while ago," Manager Don Wakamatsu said. "It's never easy thing to send a player out. The discussion we had with him, in a short period of time he's been able to experience some success and some failure, and have the opportunity to learn from that. The plan of attack with him is to be able to go down and refine some things. I thought yesterday's game, where he gave up five in the first, yet came back, changed his style of pitching a little, going with some softer pitches, and the command -- using 61 pitches over the last five innings -- is more of what we're looking for."

It isn't surprising that Fister (right) was given this opportunity. Manager Don Wakamatsu mentioned him as a possible candidate for a spot in the rotation a few weeks back, when Vargas got moved in there.

Fister is 6-4 with a 3.81 ERA. I've watched him pitch, he's lanky at 6-foot-8 and his fastball is right around 90-92 as a starter, when he pitched in relief he could hop it up to 94. He has a slider that's decent and has pretty good presence on the mound.

He's a command guy that doesn't overpower hitters. But at 6-8, he does create some angles on the ball and can get some ground balls.

I've seen Fister when he's been really good - pitching seven innings, allowing six hits and one run against Portland with six strikeouts. I've also seen him get rocked by Las Vegas. But giving him an opportunity isn't a bad thing.

Fister wasn't in the clubhouse. The Rainiers were in Round Rock, Texas, so he's probably on his way back.

Obviously, the Mariners want to see something different after Vargas struggled yesterday. It isn't certain whether Fister will move into the rotation and take Vargas' spot and pitch on Tuesday against the White Sox. We'll wait to hear from Don Wakamatsu.

Also Erik Bedard was seen carrying the results of his MRI back to the training room, so we should get a report. A group of reporters tried to talk to him but he made a quick retreat to the back room.

In the past few years with the slumping economy, the dwindling circulation numbers in newspapers, the poor business plans that most had when it came to the on-line product, the invention of Craig's List that killed classified advertising and slumping ad buys, we have watched as coverage has dwindled. Newspapers are smaller, coverage is being cheated and reporters are being let go.

In baseball coverage, it's no different, long-time writers like Murray Chass, Gordon Edes and others have been forced out of their jobs as newspapers tried lower payroll. Here in the Northwest, my good friends John Hickey and David Andriesen found themselves without jobs when the P-I closed.

In the last 24 hours, we found out that Hal McCoy of the Dayton Daily News will retire after this season after covering the Cincinnati Reds for 37 years.

How good is McCoy, well he's already in the hall of fame as the winner of the J.G. Spink Award in 2001. MLB's Jim Street wrote about Griffey giving McCoy a call when he got the news.

This isn't a voluntary retirement per se. McCoy decided to retire when he was informed that that the Daily News will stop sending a beat reporter on road trips with the Reds and change drastically how it covers the team. And McCoy didn't want to be a part of that change, or give up a vital aspect of how a team is covered.

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