BALTIMORE — Erik Bedard won’t be facing his former teammates today, after all.
A hip injury will keep the left-hander from making his scheduled start for the Seattle Mariners against the Baltimore Orioles. It was supposed to be the first appearance by Bedard in Baltimore since he was traded by the Orioles to Seattle for five players in February.
“Bedard’s got a little inflammation in the hip,” Seattle manager John McLaren said Saturday night after a 6-4 loss to Baltimore. “(Head athletic trainer) Rick (Griffin) feels confident that with medication and treatment, he’ll be fine Tuesday.”
Felix Hernandez will replace Bedard today and Carlos Silva will pitch Monday against Baltimore, McLaren said.
“I’ll be honest with you, Erik Bedard is one of the elite in the league. Not that you get a day off because you’ve got Felix throwing,” Orioles first baseman Kevin Millar said. “That’s probably one of the toughest one-two punches in the big leagues. Hopefully we can take advantage of it, but we’ve still got a tough customer in Felix.”
The injury to Bedard occurred in the outfield before Saturday’s game.
“Playing catch, he felt something when he was pushing off,” McLaren said. “We’re just not going to take any chances with Erik. He felt it in the outfield. He’s had this on one other occasion, I believe.”
Before the injury, Bedard was looking forward to facing his former team.
“They know me as much as I know them, so I don’t know if it’s an advantage or a disadvantage,” he said. “We’ll have to see.”
Bedard set a franchise record with 221 strikeouts last year before being dealt to the Mariners for Adam Jones, George Sherrill and three pitching prospects. Upon his arrival in Seattle, Bedard spoke about how difficult it was playing for a team that never had a winning season during his stay.
“With Baltimore, it seemed like we were always going backward,” he said on Feb. 8. “When I first got there it was fun, because we were signing a lot of guys and were looking forward to competing with Boston and New York. It all went downhill from there.”
Told that the perception was that he disliked playing for the Orioles, Bedard replied Saturday, “I don’t know where they got that. The fans, the players, the coaches — all of that, that was a lot of fun.”
The Orioles didn’t expect to sign Bedard to a long-term contract, so they reluctantly parted with their ace. They expected him to be just as tough to hit in a Seattle uniform as he was with Baltimore.
“My feelings about Erik haven’t changed because he’s on the other side. He’s one of the best pitchers in baseball,” Orioles manager Dave Trembley said. “What he did for me personally as a manager here last year, I’ll remember that. He gave us a chance to win each and every time he went out there. It would be to our benefit to learn how to compete against somebody like that and to do our best, because that would be a good test for our guys.”
Bedard gave up three hits and a run in five innings Monday against Texas in his Seattle debut. He has been checking box scores to see how his former teammates have fared.
“When you have friends in the game, you always look at their stats and see if they’re doing good or not,” he said. “You just try not to let them do it against you.”
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