Expect to see relief pitcher Sean Green back on the Mariners roster tonight, as Chris Reitsma heads to the disabled list with a sore elbow. Reitsma has flown back to Seattle to have the elbow looked at by the team's doctor. As for Green, he's already here as I passed by him this morning sitting in the lobby of the team's hotel.

Green won't be put on the roster until just before tonight's game. But the Mariners would not have flown him all the way down here unless they planned to do exactly that. Reitsma had already been bumped out of the eighth-inning setup role by Brandon Morrow, who notched five crucial outs in the seventh and eighth innings of Tuesday night's game to raise his team-high consecutive innings scoreless streak to 13 1/3.

That means the Mariners need someone to work the seventh inning, and that's where Green usually fits in. How serious a blow is this to the Mariners? Not as big as it would have been had Reitsma been the primary set-up guy instead of Morrow. But Reitsma hasn't been himself lately. He has a 4.86 earned-run average and hasn't pitched since allowing four runs on four hits -- three of those runs on a three-run homer -- last Friday against San Diego.

Mariners manager Mike Hargrove said last night he's been trying to manage a shorthanded bullpen as effectively as he can. That meant he had limited options Monday in Cleveland when he left Cha Seung Baek out there as long as he could into the seventh inning before bringing in Eric O'Flaherty to go the rest of the way.

Tuesday, he stuck with Morrow as long as he could, hoping he could carry the team through the eighth despite walking a batter. The last thing Hargrove wanted to do was bring closer J.J. Putz into the game at that point.

"I really didn't want to use J.J. for another two-inning save,'' he said. "But we came very close to having to do just that.''

In other words, time to get Reitsma out of there and another live arm in that could help the bullpen. That's where Green comes in. With the lackluster arms the D-Rays have starting these next two games, effective late-inning bullpen management might not be as big an issue for Seattle. But it never hurts to be ready. And a Mariners team seriously in need of a sweep here cannot afford to be anything less than prepared.