SEATTLE — While the Seattle Mariners continue to wait for Erik Bedard to settle into a pattern this season, one thought came to mind during Tuesday night’s 5-4 loss to the L.A. Angels.
Could this be his pattern?
Bedard, the top-of-the-rotation starter who the Mariners traded away five players to get, has been an up-and-down pitcher since the season began. The cycle was down Tuesday at Safeco Field.
Six days after he mastered the Red Sox with seven shutout innings, Bedard made another early exit. He gave up seven hits and four earned runs before manager John McLaren pulled him with one out and the bases loaded in the fourth inning.
“Eric didn’t have great stuff tonight,” McLaren said. “We made an error behind him and they had a lot of hits that weren’t real good hits. Seeing-eye ground balls.”
Still, Bedard gave up five runs — four of then earned — in 31/3 innings before McLaren pulled him.
In the process of falling 141/2 games behind the Angels in the American League West, the Mariners made things interesting in more ways than one.
After falling behind 5-0, they came back with Jose Lopez’s solo home run in the fourth, then three runs in the fifth when the Angels made two errors.
Then they might have found another starting pitcher.
Knuckleball specialist R.A. Dickey pitched 52/3 scoreless innings, allowing three hits and earning a rarity at Safeco Field lately — a standing ovation.
The same crowd that booed Bedard after he was pulled, then Richie Sexson after his second strikeout in the eighth capped an 0-for-4 game, stood and applauded Dickey after he got the third out in the ninth.
So did McLaren in his postgame comments.
“He couldn’t have thrown any better,” McLaren said. “He finished the game, saved the bullpen, shut them down, gave us a chance to get back into the game.”
Dickey, who pitched 51/3 scoreless innings against the Tigers on Saturday, has in the least created some discussion about putting him in a rotation that has two starters with ERAs of 6.00 or higher.
“It’s something we’ll definitely think about,” McLaren said. “I don’t know when or how.”
Dickey said he’s not thinking about starting.
“My world is being the long guy, coming in and trying to save the pen. That’s where I am right now,” he said. “I don’t have much emotion about it. We have five good starters. Things are down right now, for a prolonged period, and guys want results.”
He definitely won’t replace Bedard, who wasn’t hit hard but struggled to locate his curveball and was hardly the dominant pitcher who held the Red Sox to two hits in his last outing.
In his past six starts, Bedard has lasted seven innings, two, eight, 41/3, seven and, on Tuesday, 31/3.
While Bedard didn’t pitch an inning without allowing at least one hit, the Mariners’ defense didn’t help him.
Adrian Beltre booted a grounder for an error on the first play of the game, allowing Reggie Willits to reach first and, eventually, score on Torii Hunter’s two-out double.
Bedard put himself in a hole in the second inning, walking two around Rob Quinlan’s one-out single to load the bases, but he got Willits to pop out for the second out. Then Bedard got Maicer Izturis to hit a grounder up the middle that seemed well within second baseman Jose Lopez’s range.
Lopez dived for the ball, but it scooted under his glove and into center field for a two-run single and a 3-0 Angels lead.
Bedard ended that inning and the next with no damage, allowing only Gary Matthews Jr.’s two-out single in the third.
The Angels knocked him out in the fourth and, despite Dickey’s pitching and a mild comeback, the Mariners couldn’t manage any offense after the fifth.
Angels starter Joe Saunders and relievers Jose Arredondo and Francisco Rodriguez allowed only one baserunner in the final four innings, and they retired the Mariners’ final 10 hitters.
“You get behind five runs, that’s a big order,” McLaren said. “We just couldn’t quite get there.”
Read Kirby Arnold’s blog on the Mariners at www.heraldnet.com
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