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Geoff Baker covers the Mariners for The Seattle Times. He provides daily coverage of the team throughout spring training, and during the season.

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April 1, 2009 2:45 PM

Some ugly pitching lines

Posted by Geoff Baker

UPDATE (3:13 p.m.): We have Brandon Morrow's line for you from the Class AAA game: 1/3 (actually we're now told it was 2/3 of an inning -- two outs), one run, three walks, one hit-by-pitch. Oh, and a strikeout. He doesn't seem ready, based on that line and yesterday's outing. Threw 26 pitches. Command is obviously an issue. Yes, Morrow (seen above, pitching yesterday against the Indians) will be closing in a few weeks. But I doubt he'll be doing it Monday. By the way, the M's lead the Indians 12-8 in the top of the eighth after putting up five in the seventh.

In the "It's still spring training dept.'' we have today's pitching line for Erik Bedard down at that Class AAA affair in Phoenix. Bedard went four innings, gave up nine earned runs (!) on 11 hits, walked a pair and struck out one.

Gulp!

We're told there was a lot of wind (as you know from watching today's broadcast of Geoff Baker Live!), not to mention some shaky defense. We've also been assured by the team's media relations staff that this wasn't an April Fool's joke. Bedard did throw 79 pitches, so he's getting his arm strength up. Remember, the games don't count until Monday. Yes, we'd all like to be seeing better lines, but some guys use the spring to put up stats and others do it to get work in. We'll know come next week who is ready and who isn't.

Felix Hernandez has yielded six runs here today through six innings against the Cleveland Indians. But yes, it is still spring.

As an indicator, Cy Young Award winner Cliff Lee allowed seven runs in his first four innings against the Mariners today. Seattle has a 7-6 lead after six.

Oh yeah, another April Fool's joke? Those Adrian Beltre to the D-Back rumors that cropped up on an internet site. So, stop flipping out. We don't do April Fool's here, for reasons like that one.

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